I 






Class HIUtr__ 

Book_ ^JTL 

Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



DeMcateo to mg goung ocmgfjter 
Beatrice Jttignomtte tDooo. 



I KNO W that the world, the great 

big world, 
From the peasant up to the king, 
Was a different tale from the tale I 
tell, 
And a different song to sing. 

11 Bttt for me — and I care not a single 

fig 

If they say I am wrong or right — 
I shall always go in for the weaker 
dog, 
For the under dog in the fight? 



■i" 



BUGLE CALLS. 



r. 



y^r^ 



SsE 



7^ 





Bugle Calls 

Awake, E ducat e y 
Agitate, Act! 



" "LJE who will hear, to him the clarions of 
the battle call. How they call, and 
call, and call, till the heart swells that hears 
them. Strong soul and high endeavor, the 
world needs them now. Beauty still lies im- 
prisoned, and iron wheels go over the good 
and true and beautiful that might spring from 
human lives." — Progress and Poverty. 



By Benjamin Wood, 

Author of ^The Su[:cessfuJ M an *af Business." 



ii i ♦ "* 



, > -. 



( t New X°rk \ "'.lirerjtariQ's. 



MCML 







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THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Comes Received 

APR. 22 1901 

Copyright ««t«* 

ci/assmuxxc n» 

COPY B. 



Copyright, by Benjamin Wood, 



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« « ... , 
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A Table of the 
Contents. 



The Preface 

Introduction 

Look Forward to the Day . 

A Key to the Problem . 

What Does It Signify? . 

Let the Good Work Creep On 

Love Thy Neighbor 

Think for Yourself . 

Let Us Reason Together . 

A Peep at Sociology 

Awake, Educate, Agitate, Act 

Deeds, not Words . 

Nothing to Arbitrate? . 

Appendix : Reports of Factory 
Inspectors and of the Bureau 
of Labor Statistics, President 
Gompers' Report, and Secre- 
tary's Report, Twentieth An- 
nual Convention American 
Federation of Labor . 



ii 

19 
25 
37 
50 
68 

75 
82 

100 

"3 

126 

136 
147 



171 



THE PREFACE. 



The Preface. 

THIS appeal to the workingman 
for organization, harmony, 
and unity is the outgrowth 
of a sympathetic feeling nourished 
into life and activity through ben- 
eficial results experienced by the 
firm with which the author is asso- 
ciated, S. N. Wood & Co., San 
Francisco and New York, in its 
transformation from a Non-Union to 
a Union establishment. 

1 HE work is an indication of this 
firms sentiments for trades unions, 
and has for its motive a desire to 
weld the employer and employee 
into a better and more lasting rela- 

13 



THE PREFACE 



tion. This we believe can only be 
accomplished through fair wages, 
shorter hours, pleasanter and more 
healthful surroundings and through 
a Union Label imprinted on all 
commodities manufactured by the 
hands of labor. 

1 HE author enters no deeper 
into the sociology and economics 
of the problem. All he desires is 
justice for all ; and even though 
his remedy prove unavailing and 
another succeed he will feel more 
than delighted to have his single 
object realized. 

lT^RIOR to the entrance of our 
firm into the field of unionism, there 
existed among its respective mem- 
bers the same aversion and antipathy 
for Unions as at present exist with 
other merchants and manufacturers. 



14 



THE PREFACE 



W E were firmly impressed with the 
theory that Unions should not ex- 
ist, that they destroyed the inalien- 
able rights of citizens, and arrayed 
the laborer against the manufacturer 
and capitalist. 

W H Y, then, this change of heart ? 
you may rightly ask. And we an- 
swer, not through any mercenary 
motive, but because the veil of dark- 
ness has been lifted from our eyes 
and we see and understand the prin- 
ciples of unionism and the justice of 
its policy and polity. 

OR many months Mr. Herman 
Robinson, organizer for The Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor, and Mr. 
Henry White, General Secretary of 
the United Garment Workers of 
America, worked arduously en- 
deavoring to influence our firm to 



15 



THE PREFACE 



be thoroughly unionized, with Union 
Cutters, Union Tailors, Union Sales- 
men. We considered the proposition 
from all sides, and hesitated in mak- 
ing a change from a certainty to an 
uncertainty. There was a tinge of 
skepticism in our reception of the 
proposals ; we feared that grim 
specter termed a " Strike." 

HAT we were at last converted 
is an acknowledgment that our 
former opinions on this question were 
wrong, that we had enveloped our- 
selves in the fog of our own class 
prejudices and blinded ourselves 
with a false impression! Thanks 
are therefore due to the above-men- 
tioned representatives of Labor for 
their indefatigable energies in not 
permitting prejudice to derange our 
mind or to suppress the feelings of 

16 



THE PREFACE 



our heart. We have been con- 
vinced that there is nothing to fear 
from Labor, provided the employer 
is satisfied to have right triumph 
over wrong. 

J* INCE our association with trades 
unions, we can merely affirm that we 
have had with them no differences, 
no disputes, no strikes. Our work- 
ingmen perform their duties with 
zeal and energy, feeling that they are 
not underpaid or overworked. We, 
in turn, feel that we are receiving 
value for value given, and that the 
difference paid in wages and reduc- 
tion of hours over Non-Union estab- 
lishments is more than offset through 
skill in labor and economy in dif- 
ferent directions. Combined with 
that, we are having better work- 
manship than ever before, and rest 

(2) 17 



THE PREFACE 



content that our patrons, our families, 
and ourselves are protected, so far 
as in our power lies, against the in- 
fectious and contagious diseases of 
the sweatshop. 



18 



INTRODUCTION. 



Introduction. 

THE author has not endeavored 
to analyze sociology, psychol- 
ogy, or any other " ology," 
nor has he consciously alluded to 
wealth in terms other than of fair- 
ness. Capital is a pretty useful ar- 
ticle when we have it. Bacon says, 
" Believe not much them that de- 
spise riches, for they despise them 
that despair of them." 

lNlO conflict is recognized as raging 
between Capital and Labor, though 
it is acknowledged that a condition 
exists which brings -poverty to some 
and riches to others, and for this a 
remedy is suggested. 



21 



INTRODUCTION 

IVl ANY a literary license has been 
taken to present this work in a clear 
and concise manner so that it will 
appeal directly to the laboring ele- 
ment. Should what is to follow be 
somewhat peppery in places, the plea 
of charity must be the excuse for 
what is, at worst, merely the personal ' 
equation of the pen. 

ET us be honest with ourselves. 
Instinct prompts every man to pre- 
serve his life, and, if it is threatened by 
circumstances, he acts with a strong 
desire to protect it. We should strive, 
therefore, to give free play to every 
interest of man and not to aim to 
live on the fruits of others' labors. 
The nearer we approach justice and 
equity, the more advanced grows our 
civilization ; where Labor receives a 
just share of what it produces, there 



22 



INTRODUCTION 



we find prosperity and contentment. 
If the working classes are prosper- 
ous, they are able to pay good prices 
for the commodities of the different 
products of the world. If robbed of 
prosperity, with scarcely sufficient to 
live, they can only purchase little, 
and that of the coarsest and poorest 
quality. 

JL^ ET us consider the situation : 
Poverty is a relative term. It is not 
so very hard that one is poor as 
compared to those who are rich in 
overabundance, but what is hard is 
that the poor should have so little 
when measured by the simplest ne- 
cessities of life. There is such a 
thing as absolute poverty which does 
not require the contrast with luxury 
to breed discontent. But when this 
contrast is ostentatiously thrust upon 

23 



INTRO DUCTION 



the notice of the helpless poor, discon- 
tent grows into anarchy. Where one 
man lives in a palace and the other 
has not even a hovel for his abode ; 
where one man has the finest of 
wearing apparel, and the other is 
scantily covered, even by rags ; 
where one man feasts on the rarest ' 
delicacies, and the other starves 
without crumbs, it is there that we 
have the compost which quickens 
into life the poisonous fungi of social 
disintegration. The .conditions of 
national ruin are hunger, cold, and 
nakedness. Poverty begets igno- 
rance, ignorance begets servility, and 
servility is that disposition which 
serves him who pays the least. Fairer 
wages and shorter hours can better 
these conditions. B. W. 



24 



Bugle Calls. 



Look Forward to the Day. 

IT is with a more than surface feel- 
ing for my kind that I take up the 
old problem of "man's inhuman- 
ity to man " and attempt to solve one 
of its manifold phases. It is not with 
the rose-colored glasses of poetic 
imagination, but with the clear lens of 
converging induction, that I look 
forward to the time when the present 
tendencies of civilization shall meet 
and blend in the kindling focus of 
common interest, and when every 
man shall feel that the rights not 
only of his brother man but of every 
living creature are as sacred as his 
own. 



25 



BUGLE CALLS 



N OTHING affords me greater 
pleasure than to pay honor and 
homage to the trinity of human 
rights : life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness ; nothing affords me 
greater peace of mind than the be- 
lief that, through the influence of 
the Union Label, all will be merged 
into the unity of human aspira- 
tion, " The Common Brotherhood 
of Mankind" 

5 LOWLY, but more surely than 
observers in contracted spheres are 
apt to recognize, are we growing to- 
ward a realization of equal rights 
and equal opportunities for all Men 
are not thinking entirely of them- 
selves, nor are they armor-plated 
against the sorrows of their fellow- 
man. The desire of men is to be 
free, and it is felt that none can be 

26 



BUGLE CALLS 



free where some are slaves ; the man 
who is in danger of want, or even in 
constant dread of it, is not a free 
man himself, and his condition, like 
that of decaying fruit, threatens 
the soundness of his neighbors. 
Whatever of oppression comes to 
one, soon or late is felt by others. 

OPPRESSION creates fear: fear 
of want, fear of starvation, fear that 
what we own to-day will not be ours 
to-morrow, fear of public opinion, of 
private opinion. The editor fears to 
print the facts ; the minister to preach 
the truth. The air grows miasmatic 
with the gloom born of the germs of 
injustice, and fear and despair spread 
like panic and infection. 

JL#IVING in continual dread, con- 
tinual cringing, continual fear, weak- 
ens the individual in every respect. 

27 



BUGLE CALLS 



Mind is magnetic and attracts to 
itself whatever is free ; the more we 
open our doors and give opportunity 
for fear to enter, the more we give 
cause for fear to come in. 

1HE speech of Patrick Henry in 
the Virginia Convention of 1775 is 
an outcry against injustice. Its sen- 
timent now, as in the past, permeates 
the atmosphere with magnetic force. 
Its thought will forever travel on- 
ward. Thousands of miles away, and 
centuries hence, from millions of 
tongues shall be heard the sentiment 
which he so eloquently expressed : 
" Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as 
to be purchased at the price of chains 
and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty 
God! I know not what course oth- 
ers may take, but as for me, give me 
Liberty or give me Death ! " 

28 



BUGLE CALLS 



W E are surrounded with such 
oppression at present. It is a con- 
dition, not a theory, which confronts 
us. The rich grow richer, the poor 
poorer. The employer exacts more, 
and pays less. The cardinal doctrine 
of democracy, " Equal rights for all, 
special privileges to none," is but an 
evanescent dream, vanishing into 
vapor. The principle, however, is 
not lost ; it shall not be lost ! We 
cannot permit it to be lost ! The 
flame of liberty must never be extin- 
guished. The force of that heat and 
that aspiration of true democracy 
must and will forever live. It will 
absorb and consume material inter- 
ests ; it will combine with our other 
spiritual thoughts and thus, through 
the co-operation of unseen elements, 
will result in a new solidarity. And 
we believe that this will center 



29 



BUGLE CALLS 



around the theory of " The Union 
Label:' 



a T"> 



I HE Song of the Shirt" is hum- 
ming in our ears and appearing in 
our dreams ; it recalls the grim 
specter "Hard Times," the ghost- , 
like apparition of low wages and 
dear living. That epoch-marking 
song demands that the toiler must 
be housed, fed, and clothed. 

" Oh ! men with sisters dear. 

Oh ! men with mothers and wives, 

It is ?io t linen you're wearing out, 
But human creatures' lives ! " 

1 HE purpose of this work is 
not to class the aspiration for in- 
crease of wealth among evil desires, 
nor to disparage the merits of the 
millionaires who have acquired their 
possessions by the exercise of their 
wit and shrewd business faculties. 



BUGLE CALLS 



The pursuit of wealth is a duty, not 
alone to oneself and to ones family, 
but to mankind at large. 

X T is not necessary, however, to per- 
mit wealth to be our master ; let us 
rather make it our servant and use it 
as a lever for lifting us to something 
better and greater, for serving man- 
kind, equalizing wages, endowing col- 
leges, hospitals, libraries, churches, 
and museums. In fine, let us pro- 
mote thereby all worthy institutions 
that conduce toward the elevation 
and betterment of humanity. 
Wealth should never dominate, con- 
trol, nor gain such complete influ- 
ence over us as to own us body and 
soul. It is the part of wisdom to 
appreciate what true living implies 
and to hold in mind the fact that mere 
dollars will not and do not produce 

31 



BUGLE CALLS 



happiness. Though we have riches, 
we can only eat so much, drink so 
much, clothe ourselves and house our- 
selves; more than that we cannot do. 

I HE amassing of wealth is not the 
ideal of life and its aim, or the real 
object of our existence. There ' 
should be a keener appreciation of 
the higher purposes and pleasures of 
life than to view it thus narrowly or 
sordidly. Money is but a subordi- 
nate means to afford the gratification 
of higher aims and tastes and to 
minister to our needs and those of 
our dependents. 

" We must ever think as we strive for gold, 
That a dead man's hand cant a dollar hold, 
We may tug, and toil, and pinch, and save, 
knd we 11 lose it all when we reach the grave." 



L 



ET it not be said of us when we 
die that we left a sealed paper 



32 



BUGLE CALLS 



wherein was written and bequeathed 
three legacies, " We owe much, we 
have nothing, we give the rest to 
the poor ;" but let it be spoken of us 
that we gave to the poor what is the 
most priceless bequest, a gentle 
word, a kind look, and an encoura- 
ging smile ; that we endeavored to 
dissipate the disappointment arising 
from oppression by the ready frater- 
nity of our extended hand. 

L-* ET us in particular leave a name 
that will survive the wreck of mortal- 
ity, by offering our mite of assistance 
to those who are chained to long 
hours and anchored to small wages, 
by guiding those who are sailing in 
a light skiff through a tortuous chan- 
nel, beset with rocks on all sides and 
driven hither and thither by the 
swirling current into an unknown 

(3) 33 



BUGLE CALLS 



sea. Such a record should be the 
object dear to our heart, and the 
dream of our ambitions. Endeavor, 
therefore, to promote and advance 
the welfare of trades unions and the 
universal adoption of the Union 
Label on everything and for every- 
thing. 

JU O not pass through life without 
doing some good. The story is told 
of a king of Persia who, conversing 
with two philosophers and his vizier, 
asked, " What situation of man is 
most to be deplored ? " One of the 
philosophers replied that it was old 
age, accompanied with poverty ; the 
other, that it was to have the body 
oppressed with infirmities, the mind 
worn out, and the heart broken by a 
series of disappointments. The viz- 
ier, however, replied that he knew a 



34 



BUGLE CALLS 



condition far more to be pitied. " It 
is that," said he, " of him who has 
passed through life without doing 
good, and who, unexpectedly sur- 
prised by death, is sent to appear be- 
fore the bar of the Sovereign Judge 
of all." 

<L#OOK forward to the day when no 
truly intelligent man will be satisfied 
with his own full-fed condition while 
millions of his fellow-men are hungry 
and naked ; when the ideal man will 
be he who does not grasp everything 
within reach or turn a deaf ear to 
those who suffer ; when everyone 
will feel that the millennium does 
not mean the lion lying down with 
the lamb, the latter having an in- 
side berth. 

LOOK forward to the day when 
the earth will be greener, the skies 



BUGLE CALLS 



brighter, and the sun shine forth 
with all its warmth on the Temple 
of Labor. 

1 LANT not, but eradicate the 
thorn that grows in your part- 
ners pathway." The bestowment of 
friendly acts can rob wealth of its 
strength, extract the bitter from the 
cup of sorrow, and open wells of 
gladness in many waste places. 

" Yiittle deeds of kindness, little words of love, 
Make this world an Eden like to that above'' 

VERY heart requires sympathy, 
and is a receptacle for it. "A kind 
word falls from the lips like oil upon 
the troubled feelings of the human 
breast." No flower is as fair as that 
sympathy which springs from the 
heart, and no fragrance as sweet as 
that which is odorous with generosity. 



3 6 



A Key to the Problem. 

THE dawn of the twentieth cen- 
tury ushers in an era in which 
inequity shall be overthrown and 
justice shall govern. 

IVlY writings on this subject are 
but a mere spark of the huge smol- 
dering fire of discontent in the 
world ; were I not to take the mat- 
ter up many others surely would. 
There are multitudes of sympathizers 
with the cause of humanity; many 
who desire to render life cheerful for 
all ; to make the air balmy ; the sky 
clear ; the trees greener ; the flowers 
more beautiful, and the sun, moon, 
and stars brighter. There are many 
who are desirous of striking a chord 

37 



BUGLE CALLS 



of benevolence that shall echo and 
resound throughout the world, a 
hymn of harmonious humanity. But 
no great deed or reform was ever 
created suddenly, any more than a 
fruit tree produces fruit suddenly ; it 
takes time to blossom, to bear fruit, 
and then to ripen it. 

1 HE universe means better by 
humanity than some think. The 
toiler must not treat the world as 
his foe, nor try to extort its benefits 
and rewards by approaching it like 
a highwayman. Create sympathy 
through kindness. Create strength 
by unity. Live up to the sentiment 
expressed by Benjamin Franklin 
when signing the Declaration of 
Independence, " We must all hang 
together, or assuredly we shall hang 
separately." 

38 



BUGLE CALLS 



** LL intelligent minds will co- 
operate in this solution, regardless 
of differences of wealth, creed, or po- 
sition ; such differences will no longer 
raise an artificial wall of separation 
between social ranks and classes. 

" That man may last, but never lives, 
Who much receives, but nothing gives j 
Whom none can love, zvhom none can thank, 
Creation's blot, creations blank" 

U O for your neighbors all the 
good you can." "If you do good, 
good will be done to you." " He 
that watereth shall be watered." " He 
that plants thorns must never expect 
to gather roses." 

) EAL the doom of small wages 
and long hours with the verdict of 
death ; both deserve it. Both were 
doomed from the very beginning of 



39 



BUGLE CALLS 



their birth. The forces of evolving 
civilization are fatal to them. We 
are moving out of that decadence 
when men lived like fishes, the great 
devouring the small ; the worm has 
turned. 

VV HAT we call money gaining in 
its broad sense is not moneymak- 
ing in its true sense, but money 
transferring without any sense. It 
is a process of slave-making ; of turn- 
ing into the pockets of the one that 
which is rightly earned by the brains 
or the hands of others. 

ST is far from my desire to imply 
or have it inferred that employers 
must turn over their entire earnings 
to the employees, for this system of 
co-operation can never be perpetu- 
ated since the employee does not 
share in risks or losses. But it is no 



40 



BUGLE CALLS 



more than just when an employee 
earns through his skill five dollars a 
day that we pay him five dollars. If 
less is paid him, he is robbed of the 
difference between what he receives 
and what he is worth. This differ- 
ence is transferred to the employers 
pocket, as the meed of the master 
who, under our system of industrial 
warfare, profits by the protection of 
might as against the enforcement of 
right. 

HE pecuniary reward which men 
receive for their services is so ab- 
surdly disproportionate to the intel- 
lectual power that is needed for the 
task and also to the toil involved, 
that men cannot rely upon their pur- 
suits as a protection from money anx- 
ieties ; they are underpaid and over- 
worked. This evil must be remedied. 



41 



BUGLE CALLS 



1 HE system of industrial warfare 
must be stopped. Competition must 
not be stifled by such devices ; the 
enlisting of the best services with 
exaction of the most and payment 
of the least. Such conditions are 
industrial warfare pure and simple,, 
not industrial competition. Compe- 
tition is rivalry under conditions of 
fair play, not where wolves devour 
the lambs. Industrial competition 
is that competition where every man 
has an equal show ; where wages are 
uniform and hours of labor are agreed 
upon. Different conditions are in- 
dustrial warfare and industrial crime, 
whereby the rich grow richer, the 
poor poorer ; the poor man receiving 
no justice, the rich man all favors. 

MNCE the prevailing conditions as 
to hours of labor, rates of wages, and 



42 



BUGLE CALLS 



employment of children of a tender 
age are so dissimilar and disadvan- 
tageous to industrial competition that 
they seriously threaten the prosper- 
ity of the laboring element and of 
those manufacturers who believe in 
shorter hours and fairer wages, the 
toiler should look forward to the 
formulation and enactment of na- 
tional legislation to determine the 
conditions under which they shall 
work. There is an old adage, 
" Chickens will come home to roost." 
So likewise our wrongs to others 
must come back and fall upon our- 
selves. If the employer, in order to 
compete with his rival-employer, re- 
duces wages to the lowest possible 
degree, that action produces the 
slavery of the employee. Congress- 
men and legislators must see the 
consequences of such acts and help 

43 



BUGLE CALLS 



to pass other laws that will raise our 
Government up tothe highest plane 
of humanity. 

HE conditions under which one 
shall work and receive his pay are 
fair subjects for the care and atten- 
tion of the Government, to the end ' 
that right and justice shall charac- 
terize the dealings of citizens one 
with another. The toilers or wage- 
earners constitute so large a portion 
of the body politic as to entitle them 
to the fullest safeguarding of their in- 
terests. Uniform or universal Labor 
laws would work the greatest meas- 
ure of good for all classes. 

[ HE Labor question at present 
occupies a very different position 
from that which it occupied genera- 
tions ago when the question con- 
sisted solely of the proposition : How 



44 



BUGLE CALLS 



can wages be raised or the work- 
ing hours per day reduced ? 

I T now touches fundamentally upon 
the toiler's interest in society, how 
he shall receive wages enough to en- 
able him to become a political, a 
social, and a moral factor in the 
community. It is now a question of 
sociology, of how can society de- 
velop in the very best way so that 
all men shall receive something of 
these things in this life which make 
for culture and education. 

JtLVER since certain tribes from 
Central Asia wandered westward and 
settled in Central Europe, searching 
for better conditions ; ever since 
Christopher Columbus discovered 
this great American Continent, there 
has been this feeling of unrest and 
discontent, of longing for refinement 



45 



BUGLE CALLS 



for advancement, for education, and 
for higher civilization. 

1 HE very lifeblood in our veins is 
the heritage of those characters who 
thousands of years ago longed for a 
better condition, for a better land. 
This unrest, this discontent that im- 
pels men always and ever to seek 
better conditions, is natural and le- 
gitimate. We should not crush that 
divine spirit of unrest which makes 
the world as it is, and gives us what- 
ever civilization exists. We should 
rather contribute to the sum of 
knowledge that which shall mold 
the mind and sharpen it into some 
effective force which shall further 
better human conditions. 

l^ET us improve our industrial 
systems. One manufacturer cannot 
pay high wages and run his mill a 



BUGLE CALLS 



reasonable number of hours in com- 
petition with his rival-manufacturer 
of the same line of goods if the lat- 
ter underpays his men and over- 
works them. We should understand 
what is to be done, and then set 
about to do it with all our might. 

LACE yourself upon record as 
an advocate for well-paid, independ- 
ent labor; for justice and equity. De- 
mand that every man who toils and 
produces be compensated in exact 
proportion to the value of his labor 
and for the benefit he bestows upon 
others by his skill and efforts. 

UPHOLD Trades Unions, for 
they aim primarily to ameliorate the 
condition of the employee and not 
to antagonize the^ employer ; they 
purpose to make known and under- 
stood the needs and shortcomings 

47 



BUGLE CALLS 



of all organized craftsmen, and to 
put forth intelligent and continual 
effort to improve their standing and 
efficiency. 

-L* ET there be one keynote that 
will harmonize the discord between 
poorly paid and well-paid toil, be- 
tween Union and Non-Union prod- 
ucts, skilled and unskilled labor. 
That keynote is A Union Label — A 
Union Flag. 

1 HE Union Label is the efficient 
force for good in the struggle for 
labor's amelioration and the working- 
man's emancipation. It is the em- 
blem of well-paid, independent La- 
bor; the badge of Honesty; the 
symbol of Fair Dealings ; the token 
of True Brotherhood, and the open 
and avowed enemy of the Sweatshop. 
It stands for wholesome and sani- 



4 o 



BUGLE CALLS 



tary conditions as opposed to prison 
and child labor. This emblem is to 
the workingman's cause what the 
Stars and Stripes are to our country. 
It stands for a new Declaration of 
Independence. Wherever it waves 
and to whomsoever it dips in salu- 
tation it cries out for "Justice and 
Equity!" 



(4) 49 



What Does It Signify ? 

PURITY and justice are stamped 
on the face of the Union Label. 
The Label conforms to a strict per- 
formance of moral obligations, and 
its freedom from any sinister motive 
is reflected in the condition of well- 
paid workmen, well-fed children, and 
happy homes. Healthful conditions 
surround those who rally around 
that banner, and through its influence 
is felt and recognized the truth that 
human life is of greater moment than 
gain of gold. 

1 T is the seed of a new life, the life of 
brotherhood, justice, mercy, and love ; 
though the cradle of a new issue, 
there is in it that which will in time 



5° 



BUGLE CALLS 



revolutionize the conditions of labor; 
the time will never come when we shall 
follow its corpse to the grave; for noth- 
ing can perish that embodies the prin- 
ciples of sobriety, truth, justice, and 
morality, of " Vigilance not Violence." 

1 HIS Label is the battle-emblem of 
the laboring classes ; it will be carried 
throughout the world wherever there 
is a struggle for bread for life and the 
triumph of Right over Wrong. It is 
but a tiny piece of paper, a little rag 
of linen, but through the power of 
the seal imprinted thereupon, it is 
metamorphosed into a weapon of de- 
fense, an instrument with which the 
noblest and bravest will fight until 
justice liberates the sons of toil who 
now rest in durance vile. 

1 HE Label points the road to a 
higher ideal, a higher standard of so- 



5* 



BUGLE CALLS 



cial, intellectual, and moral well-being. 
It preaches the Gospel of Unionism, 
champions the cause of Labor, pro- 
motes its welfare, and will in time 
secure for it shorter hours and bet- 
ter wages. 

JLrABOR/S hope of deliverance ' 
from oppression rests upon its ability 
to rally round one common standard. 

x\S long as workingmen continue to 
buy Non-Union-made goods, just so 
long will respect for them be less 
and merchants continue to handle 
that class of goods whose existence 
proclaims Labors servility. 

HE laborer's cause cannot be 
destroyed by external foes, its ruin 
can only be wrought from within. 
The hope of the toilers, the prayer 
of all our people for justice, lies in the 

52 



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Label ; stand by it, and it will stand 
by you. 

W HAT does this Label signify ? It 
signifies that a fellow-unionist has 
been over the battlefield and fought 
his way against oppression. It points 
the road to Union Labor, guides the 
buyer, and shows the wage-worker 
where to find friends among em- 
ployers. 

T signifies that human life is be- 
coming more highly prized in the 
production of human commodities 
than mere profit ; it w r arns you that 
by patronizing a firm who does not 
uphold it, you assist in building up 
the business of a tyrant who extracts 
a fortune from the drudgery and deg- 
radation of his fellow-men. There- 
fore, create the demand. Ask for a 
Union Label wherever you go,what- 

53 



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ever you purchase. Even though 
you are aware that a Label is not on 
the market, nevertheless demand it. 
Demand governs supply. 

I HE more Union Labels, the more 
Union purchases. The more Union 
purchases, the more Union men. The 
more Union men, the more strength 
obtained, the more power wielded. 
Harmony pervades your ranks, less 
discord arises ; you gain wisdom, and 
wisdom gets you justice. 

W ISDOM will give you a voice 
in shaping the affairs of our Govern- 
ment. By uniting under one banner, 
one Union Label, your strength is 
concentrated and the force at your 
disposal is irresistible. 

V^ ALL for force, demand force, and 
then seek for wisdom to apply it. The 

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thought ever going in a current from 
you will be a force acting on other 
minds, and as real in such action, 
though unseen, as the pressure of 
your arm against a door. 

M ONOPOLIES and powerful cor- 
porations are begotten by the origi- 
nators meeting together and talking 
the matter over. By communication 
and interchange of opinion with those 
of your like order of thought you 
will find that the ideas which for 
years have been knocking at your 
doors are living truths and not vain 
notions and fancies. 

1 HE more you direct your minds 
toward a realization of the highest 
ideals, the more constructive force 
will you accumulate and generate to 
develop into organized power, just as 
the larger the boiler, the more force 

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is generated and the greater number 
of machines moved thereby. 

HE very existence of the toilers 
depends upon their power of combi- 
nation. The hope for the future im- 
provement in the condition of Labor 
rests upon the intelligence and loy- 
alty of the whole Labor movement. 
Labor's powers and energies must, 
therefore, be directed toward the 
unification and solidarity, of the or- 
ganized workers. The cry for lib- 
erty, for shorter hours, for better 
wages, must not be a hypocritical 
vaporing, but a clear conception of 
what Labor proposes to do. 

URPOSE to keep everlastingly 
asking for a Union Label. If an 
employer conducts his business with- 
out the Label, give him an object 
lesson on the purchasing power of 

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Labor by showing him that there 
are other merchants more to your 
liking. 

J\ IM to do no one wrong by uniting 
and federating in this manner, but 
establish justice for all. People as a 
rule are wedded to custom and are 
slow to comprehend the necessity 
for a change. Divorce them from 
custom, and do it systematically. 

O UCCESS. individually or collect- 
ively, is attained only by continuous, 
well-directed, intelligent, and ener- 
getic work ; failure results from apa- 
thy. If every Union man will try 
to make himself worth as much to 
the Union as the Union has been of 
value to him, he will not go to his 
grave without ever having a luxury ; 
nor will he deform himself, or be 
food for others, devoured by his fel- 



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low-man. Stop to consider that it is 
the Union man who, in purchasing the 
products of a Non-Union firm, puts 
it in the power of that firm to compel 
others to follow his example. The 
toiler cannot expect the respect and 
appreciation of the public when he has 
no respect or appreciation for himself. 

1 HE ills you bear are the results 
of conditions within your own control. 
You are responsible for injustice, 
for want, for crime, and wretchedness 
caused by your not understanding 
the economic law by which you are 
controlled. Do not blame the capi- 
talist. He means no harm ; you harm 
yourself unknowingly. Learn your 
lesson, then apply the remedy ; an 
empty stomach can be filled and a 
naked back clothed through the in- 
fluence of the Union Label. 



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1 HE demand must first come from 
the working classes, from the op- 
pressed, from the hungry, from the 
downtrodden, from men who despair 
and women who weep, not from the 
merchant. The toilers must tell 
what the Union Label stands for. 
They must make known to the pur- 
chasing public that in buying any 
commodity with a Label thereon, 
they are not becoming a partner to 
an institution which degrades human- 
ity for profit alone. They must tell 
that a Label on a garment, on a box 
of cigars, on a loaf of bread, or a 
piece of printing, signifies that no little 
children set fingers thereupon ; that 
no germs of smallpox, typhus fever, 
or leprosy is scattered thereabout ; 
that no convicts and no degraded 
specimens of humanity put their life's 
blood into marketable goods. 

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A UNION Label on a box of ci- 
gars signifies that the cigars are not 
the coffin-nails of Death, but were 
made by first-class workmen devoted 
to the advancement of the moral and 
intellectual welfare of the craft, not 
by coolies, by Mongolians, diseased 
with smallpox and yellow fever. Were 
smokers only to see the pestholes 
where Non-Union cigars are made, 
no legislation or Label would be re- 
quired to eradicate the evil. See 
Appendix — Hon. Theodore Roose- 
velt. 

H E Label on a loaf of bread sig- 
nifies that the bread was baked in a 
clean bakeshop, not in one of those 
dark ratholes whose filth the mind 
can hardly conceive ; not in hovels of 
human habitation where men, women, 
and children, making their shops their 

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sleeping abodes, are herded together 
like so many cattle ; mingling with 
chickens and dogs, with waterbugs, 
cockroaches, and other insects ; living 
and baking in low, tumbled-down 
shanties or cellars, where the ceil- 
ing fairly touches the occupant's 
head, where flues are defective, 
where the steam condenses and falls 
in drops on the bakers brow, and 
from the sweat of that brow into the 
dough of your bread. 

JT ICTURE squalid, filthy rooms, 
surcharged with the foulest odors 
and laden with diseased germs ; con- 
ceive of poor drainage, defective 
plumbing, the lack of the simplest 
means of ventilation, the breathing 
of air utterly unfit for respiration. 
The employer steals the sunlight 
from humanity as the great oaks rob 

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the smaller trees ; the stronger ani- 
mal devours the weak ; everything is 
at the mercy of selfishness and greed, 
inequality and injustice. 

^5 UCH labor is the rich man s food 
and the poor man s poison. We sup- 
port the drainage of the swill barrels 
of the industrial world, instead of 
patronizing clean, wholesome condi- 
tions ; yet if we do not come to the 
relief of those poor, ignorant, help- 
less creatures, their want will be ex- 
asperated into crime. See Appen- 
dix — Factory Inspector's Fourteenth 
Annual Report. 

1 HE Label on a hat or pair of 
shoes signifies that the shoes or hats 
were made by Union men in Union 
factories, not in prisons. It is a liv- 
ing evidence that the toilers have 
worked under sanitary conditions 

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and have received living wages. It 
strikes out with a blow from the 
shoulder for shorter hours and more 
healthful conditions, and invites the 
co-operation of all persons who be- 
lieve in good work, good wages, and 
absolute fairness. 

kJN clothing it signifies that to the 
workingman has been shown a newer 
and broader outlook ; that he scents 
fresh air where before he was stifled ; 
that he has become a new creature, 
braver, nobler, more cheerful and 
more contented ; that the world for 
him is not a narrow edifice with the 
cope of Heaven alone for his roof, 
his way lighted only by the lamps of 
the stars, but that the spot wherein 
he works is a havei> of rest ; the path 
on which he walks a track of light; 
that he is not robbed of that com- 



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pleteness of life which goes to make 
a human being, nor deprived of the 
full measure of his person — physical, 
mental, and social. 

<T teaches the workingman that 
industrial sovereignty is the sover- 
eignty of manhood, that sovereignty 
protests against filth, and poisonous 
dust, bad air, foul odors, and crowded 
workshops ; that it rescues the soul 
from abortion and signs it with 
the seal of American manhood and 
citizenship; that it recognizes the 
workingmen as our strength and 
the very foundation of the nations 
greatness. 

IT means that it will not permit the 
cannibalistic manufacturer to devour 
greedily the flesh and drink the 
blood of a toiling, groaning, trem- 
bling, suffering humanity. 

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BUGLE CALLS 



IT means that it will not make 
them slaves to toil, drudging from 
early morn till late at night for bare 
necessaries, with a sense of injustice 
rankling in their minds, equally for 
what they have not, and for what 
others have. 

i\ MAN with a just heart cannot 
be satisfied until he effects better 
conditions. It almost makes us 
ashamed to be well dressed and 
warm when we see our fellow-men 
in misery and want, famished, rag- 
ged, and shivering. 

W HY not rally to their assist- 
ance ? Shall your heart be as cold 
as the bodies of these poorly clad 
garment makers ? 

1J.OW can the Union Label ever 
become a factor of beneficence unless 

(S) 6 5 



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you act consistently and support it ? 
Do you not realize that it is the only 
safeguard that your garments were 
made in light, clean, airy workrooms, 
where sanitary regulations are ad- 
hered to, where contagious and in- 
fectious diseases are not rampant ? 
Do you not know that the sweat- 
shop is spreading consumption broad- 
cast; that throughout the entire East 
Side of New York City men, women, 
and children are huddled" together in 
living apartments, bedrooms,kitchens, 
and even narrow hallways ; that the 
floors and walls reek with filth, and 
the inhabitants perhaps have made 
their beds out of the garments which 
you now have on your back ? Is it 
not a pleasing reverie — " From the 
consumptive's back to your back;" 
garments saturated and impregnated 
with pathogenic germs of a deadly 

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disease? See Appendix — Factory 
Inspectors Fourteenth Annual Re- 
port. 

^ UCH conditions should arouse 
your intellect, even though blind 
madness had deranged your mind. 

VV AKE up, citizen ! You are fall- 
ing behind. If the foregoing facts 
are unpalatable it is better they 
should be known than that you 
should continue to sleep and dream 
amidst filth and disease. 



67 



Let the Good Work Creep On. 

1* HE Union Label is in its form- 
ative stage; in the near future 
it will be the key to the solution of 
Labors amelioration. Its influence 
in this problem will be comparable 
to the great strength of Niagara, and 
like unto that great torrent which 
gains its current from the deep and 
peaceful waters of the lake from 
which it issues, so the laboring 
classes will gain power through the 
peaceful issue of the Union Label. 

F IGURATIVELY speaking, the 
Label is like a little boy a few months 
old lying helpless in his cradle with 
barely sufficient strength to move a 
muscle, or power enough to hold his 



BUGLE CALLS 



milk bottle to his mouth ; yet in that 
feeble youngster we know lie the 
power and possibilities which twenty 
years hence may enable him to lift 
with ease weights that stagger ordi- 
nary humanity. All record-breakers 
were once " mewling " infants. 

i F the strength of the Union Label 
is not proportionately influential and 
powerful, the fault will be in the in- 
dolence, the selfishness, and short- 
sightedness of the laboring man, for 
it is evident that the large multitude 
of toilers will and can emancipate 
themselves by its wide usage. There- 
fore, give us a Label for everything 
we wear, from the sole of our feet to 
the crown of our head. See Appen- 
dix — " Union Label." 

11 AMMER it into our shoes, paste 
it in our hats ; sew it in our wearing 

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BUGLE CALLS 



apparel. Have the baker bake it 
in his bread, the painter paint it on 
his signs, the plasterer plaster it on 
the walls, the polisher polish it in his 
metals, the machinist mold it in his 
engines, the pattern maker fashion it 
in his patterns. Have the sailor nail 
it to the mast and the shipwright 
carve it at the prow. Have Union 
doctors bow us into the world, and 
Union gravediggers usher us out. 

JL/ET the good work creep on. 
Though but a hint, a wish, a de- 
sire, a demand, that one man scarce- 
ly whispers to his neighbor for fear 
of ridicule, it will grow, according to 
the laws of nature, to be the voice of 
an enthusiastic people. 

Characterize this agitation 

by uniform decorum and good con- 
duct. Destroy all hypocrisy, all false 

70 



BUGLE CALLS 



measures, perverted aims, and low 
pandering to ignorance and brutality. 

l^ET it be said that, in this instance 
at least, the toiler has evinced an hon- 
orable eagerness to sacrifice time, 
means, comfort, and convenience, and 
to cast aside all petty feelings in a 
cause which is sacred and beneficial, 
in a cause which is an inspired evan- 
gel of a new religion of humanity. 

l^ET it be the glory and boast 
of the dawn of the twentieth cen- 
tury, that all classes have turned 
their attention to the hardships and 
perils of our working classes and 
will do all they can to better their 
condition. 

I F through it all but one atom of 
good shall be achieved for the work- 
ingman; if through it all we shall 



BUGLE CALLS 



aid in lessening ever so little the con- 
tinuous strife between Capital and 
Labor, it will be a far grander and 
nobler triumph than ever has been 
wrung from the complacent charity 
of the rich by the importunities of 
the poor. 

1^ ET us not covet a single leaf of 
the laurels that encircle the brow of 
those who put fetters upon the mind, 
soul, and body of man, woman, or 
child. Let us not envy their tri- 
umph. Theirs be the glory of car- 
rying it; ours, of having to the ut- 
most of our poor ability resisted it 

\\ E can safely conclude that if this 
Union Label, after being incorpo- 
rated into the woof of our social fab- 
ric, shows that it can produce equally 
good results wherever and when- 
ever it is accepted, it is close to an 



72 



BUGLE CALLS 



absolute truth, an absolute solution 
of the laboring problem. 

TS benefits will come like the ap- 
pearance of a nearby spring of fresh 
bubbling water to one well nigh over- 
come with thirst ; like a full burst 
of moonlight to one staggering in 
the darkness ; like a seed planted in 
fertile soil which in due season will 
sprout and bring forth its fruit. They 
shall give to labor the strength of a 
giant and impart to his heart the 
tenderness of a babe. 

" All seems beautiful to vie. 

I can repeat over to men and women, You 

have done such good to me I would do 

the same to you. 
I will recruit for myself and you as I go; 
I will scatter myself among men and women 

as I go; 
I will toss a new gladness and roughness 

among the my 



BUGLE CALLS 



1 HUS wrote that poet who was so 
great that he knew no envy, no 
prejudice ; who never boasted that 
he was higher nor lower than any 
other man, meeting all on terms of 
absolute equality, mixing with the 
poor, the lowly, the oppressed as 
well as the cultured and rich, a man 
who said to the outcast, "Not till the 
sun excludes you will I exclude you." 
Such conduct begets good will of man 
for man ; we see and feel the sun- 
shine of friendship beaming from the 
countenance of everyone we meet. 



74 



Love Thy Neighbor. 

HOW seldom do we pause in 
the pursuit of happiness to 
consider wherein it consists. How 
often do we seek happiness in wealth 
that, when obtained, debars its pos- 
sessor from the freedom of living. 

RAY hairs and the winter of old 
age steal quickly upon us and we look 
fearfully forward with tearful eyes 
and sorrowful heart, feeling that 
death will soon break the chain which 
binds us to life. It is then we see 
that the greed for gold has degraded 
our higher and nobler ideals of life 
and that the power and suprem- 
acy which wealth affords were not 
worth the fighting for. 

75 



BUGLE CALLS 



IT is then we realize that, just as 
Jacob rolled the stone from the well 
to permit the shepherds and their 
flocks to quench their thirst, so they 
who use their money in the cause of 
humanity have opened wells that will 
send forth the waters of life forever. 

" Some have too much, yet still do crave; 

I little have, and seek no more; 
They are but poor, though much they have, 

And I am rich, with little store; 
They poor, I rich; they beg, I .give; 

They lack, I have; they pine, I live'' 

Thomas carlyle, in his 

" Past and Present," says, " We have 
sumptuous garnitures for our life, 
but have forgotten to live in the 
middle of them. . . . Many men 
eat finer cookery, drink dearer liq- 
uors, but what increase of blessed- 
ness is theirs? Are they any better, 
stronger, braver? Are they even 

76 



BUGLE CALLS 



what they call happier ? . . . To 
whom, then, is this wealth wealth? 
Who is it that it blesses? Makes 
happier, wiser, more beautiful, or in 
any way better? ... In the midst 
of plethoric plenty the people per- 
ish ; with gold walls and full barns, 
no man feels safe or satisfied." 

" Backward, flow backward, O tide of years ! 
I am so weary of toil and of tears, — 
Toil withoitt recompense, tears all in vain / 
Take them, and give me my childhood again / " 

JO pleads the toiler as cold and 
cheerless appears his outlook, with 
no vivifying influence to cool his fe- 
vered brow, no joy to uplift his mind. 

J\S the past, the present, the future, 
pass before him at a glance, present- 
ing the false colorings of the world, 
his soul dreads the aspect. Broken 
in spirit, toiling from day to day for a 

77 



— 



BUGLE CALLS 

miserable support, he falls bound in 
the mighty chains of servitude. 

" L(?/ me to-night look back across the span 
'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience 
say — 

because of some good act to beast or man, 
The world is better that I lived to- day." 

jTL N aged saint once said, that " No 
man could rightfully define the word 
Heaven until he stands by a newly 
made grave ; one may sometimes see 
more through his tears than when 
looking through the largest telescope; 
he who has never wept does not know 
the value of laughter; he who has not 
labored and toiled along the hot and 
dusty roads does not appreciate the 
bliss of sitting under the friendly 
branches of a shady tree." 

1 HE moral of that story proclaims 
" Peace, good will toward men." It 

78 



BUGLE CALLS 



teaches that which will contribute to 
our present comfort as well as our 
future happiness ; it expands our 
views, strengthens our resolves, and 
points to Christ's teachings, " Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
And when asked the question, " Who 
is my neighbor ? " it tells the answer 
expressed in immortal story, " Every- 
one who needs thy help." 

[ TS greatest plea is charity. It 
breathes Christianity and begs us to 
enter the hut of the poor man and 
sit down with him and his children, 
and, if possible, make them con- 
tented in the midst of privation and 
hardship. It impresses upon our 
mind the principles of a just union 
as of brother and brother, not as of 
slave and master, and gives us to 
understand that we should meet man 



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face to face, heart to heart, and hand 
to hand. We are not independent 
parts, but compacted members of one 
great organization — Mankind. All 
things are implicated in one another, 
and the bond is holy. Mankind is 
only another word for humanity. 

1 F one will picture the mechanics 
building our huge commercial struc- 
tures and consider the enormous 
risk to life in such labor, then weigh 
the danger, the skill, and the efforts 
of the workers against the wages 
they receive, the scales cannot bal- 
ance. 

JDEHOLD the brawny blacksmith, 
the grimy miner, the sweating stoker, 
the brave engineer, the dauntless 
sailor, the fearless fire laddie, the 
pestered conductor, and the frozen 
gripman ! 

So 



BUGLE CALLS 



jDEHOLD their labor-stained faces 
and soiled garments, which are the 
outward signs of an honest purpose, 
while their hard hands are the sym- 
bols of tender, affectionate hearts. 
The collier crawls in the underground, 
the farmer plods along with his hoe, 
the blacksmith wields his ponderous 
hammer, and the engineer in his 
midnight vigils watches the track to 
save our lives. They all pursue 
necessary, and therefore honorable 
callings. 



(6) 81 



Think for Yourself. 

THE toilers pull down the ven- 
erable Temple of Justice and 
Liberty with their own rash hands 
on their own devoted heads. They 
demolish the good and increase the 
evil by closing their eyes to the con- 
sequences of their acts.' They rush 
on to their doom, laboring over ten 
hours a day, and accepting less than 
a fair day's wages. They give the 
most, get the least, and yet continue 
to patronize those who thrive on 
their degradation — "the Non-Union 
establishments." The spirit ofTrade- 
Unionism is thus violated by the 
very men who should certainly be 
the last to do to others what they 

82 



BUGLE CALLS 



would not wish others should do to 
them. 

1 HE old axiom says, "Where 
two laborers seek one employer, the 
employer fixes the price of wages; 
but where two employers seek one 
laborer, the laborer fixes the price." 

T 

1 O make a good argument two 
things are requisite : first, that the 
principle itself be sound ; secondly, 
that it corresponds to the fact that 
it assumes. 

1 HE toilers, to be prosperous, 
must have two or more employers 
seek one laborer. This can be com- 
pelled through organized power, 
by every toiler becoming a full- 
fledged Union man, buying only 
Union-made products, and demand- 
ing that every commodity bear a 

83 



BUGLE CALLS 



Union Label. This course of action 
means in time that all mechanics will 
become Union men; the Label is 
the tool by which the machine can 
speedily be constructed. " On the 
Highway of Destiny a man meets no 
one but himself." Enthusiasm and 
earnestness are contagious ; it is im- 
possible to make others feel a senti- 
ment unless you feel it yourself. 

1 HE working classes must act to- 
gether. They have in their hands, 
if they know how to use it, the power 
of becoming masters of the situation. 
Self-protection is the end of their 
political economy. Reason argues 
that they are sure to be the victims 
of the misuse of capital, if they are 
unguarded. 

I HE Union Label affords protec- 
tion. It is an instrument of progress, 

8 4 



BUGLE CALLS 



a lever by which the laborers may 
hope to raise themselves, if they will 
but exercise a little effort and self- 
denial. 

IKE every other expedient, the 
Label is a means to an end, this be- 
ing the amelioration of labor, shorter 
hours, fairer wages, and the preven- 
tion of any predominance of tyranny 
by one class over another. 

W ORKINGMEN, weigh this ap- 
peal solemnly ; if you feel that you 
can agree with me, go among your 
friends and acquaintances and make 
converts to your ideas. Speak in 
season and out of season, in public 
and in private ; agitate the problem. 

YJ IVINE Omniscience has im- 
planted within us the principle 
whereof springs this Label. By it 

85 



BUGLE CALLS 



mankind shall develop into other 
and better conditions. It is the sov- 
ereign scepter of Labor, to conquer 
the traitors to common justice, when 
all else has failed. 

" Decrees are sealed in Heaven's own chancery », 
Proclaiming universal liberty, 
Rulers and kings who will not hear the call, 
\n one dread hour shall thunder ■- stricken fall. 

" So moves the growing world with march sub- 

lime, 
letting new music to the beats of Time; 
Old things decay, and new things ceaseless 

spring, 
And God's own face is seen in everything." 

HE toilers must have objects to 
attain as well as their employers. 
Why should they be cajoled? Let 
employers picture themselves in the 
laborers' place. Let them see them- 
selves as others see them. Sympa- 
thy will follow knowledge, and desire 

86 



BUGLE CALLS 



to act, sympathy. Not to desire to 
act under these conditions is but to 
confess that you have no principle. 

WORKINGMEN, the evils you 
endure are remediable by yourselves. 
You have dwelt in sties too long, 
while society lifts up its perfumed 
hands in horror at your bad taste 
and enforced low desires. Medi- 
cine cannot be made more pleasant 
through thinking of its taste, so 
swallow this quickly. You are suf- 
fering from a disease termed " Op- 
pression/' with but one remedy at 
hand, and that remedy a panacea, 
" Education." Is the disease more 
agreeable than the remedy ? Work- 
ingmen, pardon my plainness, I 
mean no offense. I desire to reach 
your heart, to strike at your con- 
science, and this can only be done 

37 



BUGLE CALLS 



by calling a spade a spade, and the 
truth the truth. 

I T is said, that " A nations great- 
ness depends not on acres, but upon 
the education of the people." 

ORGANIZED Labor, in order to , 
accomplish permanent improvement, 
must look to the education of legis- 
lators. The first duty of the labor- 
ing interests is to fill our halls of 
legislation with those who under- 
stand the true and harmonious rela- 
tions of Labor and Capital. Distin- 
guish between the true statesman 
and the demagogue. Demagogues 
by false legislation have nearly ship- 
wrecked humanity and have occa- 
sioned incalculable misery in the 
world. Corrupt members of repre- 
sentative bodies have for a consider- 
ation subserved the purpose of great 



88 



BUGLE CALLS 



corporations and capitalists, selling 
the interests of their constituents ; the 
workingman finally foots the bill by 
the parings from his wages. 

1 HE Labor problem is a working- 
mans problem, of him and by him, 
as well as for him. The capitalist 
will not seek to solve it for the 
laborer ; the workingman must do 
it for himself. Legislation is the 
primary constructive point around 
which better conditions must center. 
Instead of begging and trusting to 
others to legislate for them, the la- 
borers themselves should be properly 
represented in the legislature ; those 
who are not of you cannot appreciate 
your true wants or even understand 
your condition ; it is the most com- 
plete evidence of indolence and 
indifference on the part of the 

89 



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laborers that they are not better 
represented. 

^W HAT the future of the world is 
in the workingman's hands is a mat- 
ter not of fancy but of fact. The la- 
boring class has it in its power to 
send to Congress those who shall 
fully represent its interests. A remedy 
is required. Let it be applied at 
once so that government may be con- 
ducted primarily in accordance with 
the interests and demands of the la- 
boring party. 

i NTER upon the political field in 
the manner of an evangelist, not to 
gratify ambition, commercial or po- 
litical, but to exercise a trust which 
has been given for the advancement 
of the human race. Let the work- 
ingmen regard every human being 
as a kinsman and work together for 

90 



BUGLE CALLS 



the common brotherhood of mankind. 
Let them be friends and exponents 
of the most complete equality to 
which humanity can attain, compati- 
ble with the public good. Let them 
be faithful workers in the cause of 
human advancement and strive to 
better the conditions of the poor and 
friendless, so as to secure to the 
great mass of their fellows the just 
reward of toil. To merge all minds 
into this one channel cannot fail to 
result in the good of the whole. 

LV ACE with your fellow-man, but 
do not run a foul race ; do not treach- 
erously disable your comrade. Run 
with all your might on the path of 
right to reach the goal of independ- 
ence, enlightenment, and progress, 
and thus keep forever at the head of 
truly democratic ideas. 



91 



BUGLE CALLS 



W HEREVER you find a law in- 
sufficient or ineffective, point out the 
defect and suggest the remedy. 

11 AVE your country lead the world 
in the purity, honor, and justice of 
its government, the happiness of its 
citizens, and the high character and 
ennobling influence of its civilization. 

VjrO forth not as messengers of war 
but as heralds of humanity. Con- 
sider the best means of promoting 
safety and comfort and contributing 
generally to the prosperity of our 
great industrial order. 

vjET above the clouds. Let the 
sun of freedom shine for all and the 
stars of hope illume the entrance of 
the twentieth century. Laborer or 
capitalist, we are all the children of 
one Father — God. 



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BUGLE CALLS 

1 HE night is far spent, the day 
is at hand : let us therefore cast off 
the works of darkness, and let us put 
on the armor of light. Let us walk 
honestly, as in the day." 

1 HERE are not two kinds of 
creatures, nor two kinds of liberty, 
superior and inferior ; nor are there 
two sorts of men, men with rights in- 
alienable and men with rights alien- 
able. All come into this world on an 
equality, feeble in body and mind, 
but with the seed of improvement in 
both body and mind ; therefore pro- 
gress and intellectual excellence are 
our duty, our honor, and our interest. 

WoRKINGMEN, you have a 
voice in shaping our government 
— make use of your voting power. 
Let your vote be the corner stone of 
the Temple of Justice and Liberty. 



93 



BUGLE CALLS 

IGHT for your children as well 
as for yourselves ; for your children's 
children and the unborn millions of 
people yet to follow. Fight for the 
women you love, for the children you 
adore, and for the homes you prize. 
Send your representatives to Con- 
gress pledged to support legislation 
controlling the hours of labor and 
the rates of wages. When you have 
accomplished the grand duty of 
electing men to office who will pro- 
mote such movements you can safely, 
yes proudly, await with patience 
the certain progress of reform. Use 
the ballot, it is there for that pur- 
pose. Do not permit the ambitious 
man of wealth to trample on the 
bodies of thousands, to dethrone 
justice so as to gain his world. 
" Unite." The fagot is stronger than 
its parts. 

94 



BUGLE CALLS 



Congressman John j. Lentz, 

of Ohio, said : " Unorganized Labor 
is the timid, crouching, servile instru- 
ment of Capital, yielding its head and 
extending its neck to the yoke of the 
master. Unorganized Labor stands 
before the American people as a 
pitiable example of that old saying, 
that ■ necessity knows no law/ They 
have become so hungry and so 
naked, that to satisfy their immedi- 
ate physical wants they are perfectly 
willing to sacrifice every mental and 
moral want, not only to themselves, 
but of their posterity, even to the 
fourth generation." 

1 HE rapid changes that constantly 
take place in the methods of produc- 
tion require continual efforts on the 
part of trade unions to maintain the 
rights of the laboring element. 

95 



BUGLE CALLS 



ORGANIZED Labor is the pro- 
moter of public peace and happi- 
ness ; where Labor organizations are 
strongest, strikes are most infrequent. 
The only hope for the people ar- 
rayed against the great aggregations 
of Capital is in the balancing influ- 
ence of Labor organizations. 

l^OCTORS have their associa- 
tions, lawyers theirs ; that which is 
right with others is not- wrong with 
the workingman. Progress is the 
law of nature. 

WoRKINGMEN, you must not 
stand still, you cannot stand still, you 
must go forward or backward — which 
shall it be ? 

R EMEMBER it is not a question 
of politics, but a question of right or 
wrong. There must be a legislature 

9 6 



BUGLE CALLS 



ready and willing to inquire into and 
remedy without fear or favor every 
abuse of the laboring world, and to 
represent fully the feelings of all 
classes. There is a perfectly clear 
and well-defined meaning to the 
words " right " and " equality " when 
applied to the administration of jus- 
tice under a settled law, though they 
are only vague and inappropriate 
metaphors when applied to the dis- 
tribution of political powers. 

j[\ LL laws or usages which favor 
one class of people to the disadvan- 
tage of others, which check the ef- 
forts of any part of the community 
in pursuit of their own good, are vio- 
lations of the fundamental principles 
of public policy. „ 

tL LECT a legislature sufficiently 
free from political, partisan, and so- 

(7) 97 



BUGLE CALLS 



cial affiliation as to endeavor to 
harmonize the interests of Capital 
and Labor, and remove the imperfect 
conception of justice, righteousness, 
equity, and humanity. Let it pass 
laws that regulate but do not 
enslave. 

HE interests and prosperity of 
the country are dependent upon 
the producing class, and the leaders 
of politics must account to these 
producers for their actions. They 
are "the masses," the majority of 
our citizens, and, therefore, no 
other class is entitled to so much 
consideration at the hands of legis- 
lation. 

T is well enough to cry " Liberty ! " 
when slavery rages, but the crying 
will not bring it. Let the liberty 
that is acclaimed, the freedom that is 

9 8 



BUGLE CALLS 



lauded, and the injustice that is as- 
serted be subjected to the test of 
analysis, so that it may be really 
known what principles enter into 
their composition. 



99 



Let Us Reason Together. 

CAPITALISTS continue to ap- 
ply all their energies to the 
acquisition of wealth, utterly mind- 
less in most cases of any idea as to 
what has given it to them. Let us 
reason together : The toiler ac- 
knowledges that he cannot compel 
capital to bend to his terms, but 
capital must not forget that if there 
is a real cause of dissatisfaction which 
grows out of injustice, the sooner 
justice is done the less serious will 
be the reckoning. 

HERE is really no conflict be- 
tween Capital and Labor, but there 
is a conflict between the representa- 
tives of Capital and Labor. There- 



IOO 



BUGLE CALLS 



fore, since there is a despotism of 
Capital over Labor through repre- 
sentatives, the laborers should send 
to the front as their representatives 
such political parties as shall make 
it their business to frame laws in the 
interests of Labor, and these parties 
shall not allow themselves to be 
used as puppets to be so manipu- 
lated as to keep others in place and 
power. Why should the rich alone 
be represented ? 

" If there be some iveaker one, 
Give me strength to help him on; 
If a blinder soul there be, 
Let me guide him nearer Thee." 

SLAVERY of the body should no 
longer be possible. The verdict of 
the twentieth century proclaims it 
" far behind the age." One thing is 
evident to all, some great issue of 



JCl 



BUGLE CALLS 



vital importance must develop and be 
of sufficient magnitude and general 
importance to arouse the people 
from the indifference which has 
characterized the past. 

1 T is not for the best interests of 
wealth that it should heap up for itself 
more treasures of gold at the ex- 
pense of poverty. On the contrary, 
it is to the true interest of the rich 
to render fullest justice and strictest 
equality to the demands of labor. 
The true interest of wealth consists 
in the general prosperity of the 
masses. Every person's best interest 
lies in the prosperity of his neighbor. 
The more prosperous the neighbor, 
the better patron he proves for the 
surplus commodities of the other. 
Our interests are so mutual that in 
the proportion in which we injure 

102 



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our neighbor we cripple our own 
interests and injure ourselves. 

Individual benefit must not 

accrue from the acquisition of wealth 
at the expense or sacrifice of any 
general principle of justice, nor must 
Labor array itself in opposition to 
wealth. A bringing together of the 
two interests is what is desired ; an 
assimilation, so that the same end 
shall be best subserved for both. 
Such a course will promote complete 
unity, harmony, and equality, and 
join both the capitalist and the 
laborer in a system of mutual and 
reciprocal interdependence. A union 
which will better the condition of 
the productive class and give it 
an independent position is a course 
consistent with freedom and jus- 
tice. 



103 



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A 



LL false systems will in time 
yield their sway to God s command, 
" Let there be light." Let there be 
a life full of justice, love, and wis- 
dom. All over the face of creation, 
in the bosom of the earth and in the 
heart of man, is written, " Let there 
be light." 

VV E have but to question the earth 
whether or not, from its beginning 
onward through countless ages, it 
has obeyed the one great command, 
Progress, and we find that at no 
time since the earth was, has the 
law of progression been inverted and 
the world turned backward toward 
the point of beginning. Since that 
has not occurred in the past, we 
may safely conclude that it will not 
in the future, and that the present 
signs point toward Progress. 

104 



BUGLE CALLS 



K E WARD Labor in proportion 
to its excellence, else there will be no 
excellence to reward ; the amount and 
quality of labor done by a man are re- 
lated in some way or other to the 
amount of reward offered him. Skill 
as a universal rule is developed in 
proportion to wages ; when we per- 
form an action, we perform it in con- 
sequence of some motive of interest. 

1 HE possibility of better wages is 
not a dream : Labor's grievance, being 
practical and not theoretical, will not 
be brushed aside ; though it may be 
impossible to find a remedy at once, 
the grievance will nevertheless re- 
ceive attention. Judgment for an 
evil thing, though many times de- 
layed, is as sure asjife or death. 

I HE toilers will not be treated 
like pigs and cattle much longer. 

105 



BUGLE CALLS 



They now possess the secret of their 
own power — "The Union Label." 

1 T pays to treat the toilers as though 
they were of different stuff ; it pays to 
have men in our employ in whom we 
have sufficient confidence to intrust 
our affairs. It pays to feel that the 
workman is not forced to accept an 
offer of employment without a just 
recompense. 

" Behold, ye must not tread , us down like slaves; 
And ye shall not — and cannot' 9 

1 HERE is not a horse throughout 
the world, able and willing to work, 
but has food and lodging, and feels 
satisfied. Poor workingmen, what 
are they with their scanty equipment, 
with the paring down of wages for 
the benefit of somebody's pocket and 
to the injury of somebody's soul ! 

106 



BUGLE CALLS 



1 HAT all men are born free and 
equal is the fundamental idea upon 
which our government is built ; if the 
structure is not as yet perfect, the 
foundation is, and can never be de- 
stroyed ; life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness are not simply meta- 
phors, but the lifeblood of American 
institutions. 

W E have rid ourselves of chattel 
slavery ; now let us dispose of com- 
mercial bondage. Patriotism must 
not be deafened by the mere cry of 
" Freedom and Justice," be they 
sounded ever so loudly. Foul things 
always seek for fairest names. 

" 'Love thyself last. Look far and find the 

stranger 

Who staggers J neath his sin and his despair; 

Go, lend a hand, and lead him out of danger, 

To heights where he may see the world is 

fair." 



107 



BUGLE CALLS 



WoRKINGMEN, show your 
strength ; a dwarf may dissemble, but 
dissimulation is not the part of a giant. 
No one is ever feared or respected if 
he be not strenuous. Be a man and 
you will be treated like a man. Ap- 
pear as a coward and everyone will 
abuse you, What may appear far- 
fetched to-day will assume a serious 
aspect to-morrow. Do not lie su- 
pinely while the enemy binds you, 
hand and foot. 

I O the victor belong the spoils," 
is a remnant of arbitrarily assumed 
authority unworthy of a government 
emanating from the whole people. 
The progress of human society con- 
sists in the better apportioning of 
wages of labor. The ideal of celes- 
tial justice is that it pays every man 
accurately what he has worked for, 

108 



BUGLE CALLS 



what he has earned, done, and de- 
served. 

ACQUAINT the representatives 
of labor with your power. Have 
them recognize the fact that you 
have it in your command to elect a 
man who will legislate for you as 
well as for the capitalist, and by so 
doing do away with this insane de- 
nunciation of wealth by those who 
would stir up any kind of strife to 
become leaders, and who if possessed 
of the power of wealth would wield 
it more despotically than it is now 
exercised by those possessing it. 

L> ECOME more than mere instru- 
ments of agitation, or an exposition 
of the injustice of Capital to Labor; be 
constructive in action. Arouse your- 
self to the importance of devoting 
sufficient time to preparing candi- 

109 



BUGLE CALLS 



dates who will at all times and under 
all circumstances work for the great- 
est good to the greatest number. 

I N this way labor may hope to arise 
from its present position of degrada- 
tion and sit side by side with capital 
in all public positions, 

V^EASE blaming others for results 
which you have it in your power to 
remedy, and do not expect those 
whose interests are at variance with 
yours to correct the evil for you. 

HE energies of Labor reform 
should be directed to the main point 
from which benefit to itself must 
spring ; therefore waste no time nor 
strength upon the minor issues, but 
concentrate all upon the one strategic 
point of organization. 

no 



BUGLE CALLS 



" Workman of God! O lose 7iot heart, 

But learn what God is like; 
And in the darkest battlefield 

Thou shalt knozv where to strike." 

JOIN hands in unity, and legisla- 
tures will bow in submission ; instead 
of being the willing servants of cor- 
porate wealth they will be the serv- 
ants of the people. 'Tis true that 
we have not the right to interfere 
with men, preventing them in their 
honest pursuits from acquiring as 
much wealth as they possibly can, 
but we have the right to legislate so 
as to prevent the rich from growing 
richer through a system of bondage 
that manifests itself through the poor 
growing proportionately poorer. 

Horace greeley said, m 

stand here, friends, to urge that a 
new leaf be turned over — that the 



in 



BUGLE CALLS 



Labor class, instead of fully waiting 
for better circumstances and better 
times, shall begin at once to consider 
and discuss the means of control- 
ling circumstances and commanding 
times by study, calculation, foresight, 



union." 



112 



A Peep at Sociology. 

THREE principles that tend to 
equalize conditions demand 
recognition : First, intelligence ; sec- 
ond, patience ; third, conscientious 
effort. 

JL* ABOR is the foundation of every- 
thing supporting the structure of 
civilization and the glittering dome 
of progress. On it are built the 
wonders of the world, the shrine 
where wealth comes to worship. 

VjrOD, in his infinite wisdom, fore- 
seeing the extremely important rela- 
tion between Capital and Labor, or- 
dained that there siiould be absolute 
diversity in nature. Among the 
marvels of his creation are some 

(8) "3 



BUGLE CALLS 



fitted by acquisitive ability, others by 
talent, to be respectively employer 
and employee. Of these classes the 
higher dignity should belong to La- 
bor, since the artisan possesses the 
talent, the strength of mind, and the 
mechanical skill of the world. 

VjrOD has seen fit to decree that 
there should be mutual dependence 
among us, just as he made the dull 
gray lichen cling to th.e rocks and 
draw its life from the cold stone 
which it gnaws into the very smallest 
fragments, so that the trees of the 
forest might take those particles up 
for nourishment. 

1 H ROUGH mutual dependence 
we find the planets in the heavens 
roll on in their orbits, balancing one 
with another ; were the position of 
these planets to be changed or de- 



114 



BUGLE CALLS 



stroyed the whole face of heaven 
would likewise be changed or de- 
stroyed. So we find the necessity 
for mutual dependence between Cap- 
ital and Labor. 

" H> prayeth best who loveth best 
All things, both great and small; 

For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all" 

1 HE wonderful precision of nature 
is well illustrated in a hive of bees. 
Nature through the queen, produces 
eighty thousand eggs, which when 
hatched constitute a community or 
swarm, comprising every order of bee 
necessary to the prosperity of the 
hive. This tiny insect illustrates the 
necessity of social inequality or divi- 
sion of labor, there being just so 
many honey gatherers, pollen gather- 
ers, wax workers, nurses or feeders, 
drones and males. Each bee works 



"5 



BUGLE CALLS 



in its peculiar line of labor according 
to its bent of disposition, yet all are 
mutually dependent one with the 
other and all to the common head. 
When the queen dies, they all die. 

HERE will always be the neces- 
sity for some to plan and others to 
execute. Some must be like the 
large lakes to collect the waters, and 
others like the pipes that distribute 
the waters when collected. The 
stars are not all of the same bril- 
liancy, nor are the mountains of 
the same altitude ; the trees are not 
all of the same height, nor are the 
flowers alike in beauty or perfume ; 
the waves of the ocean are not of 
just the same form, nor the blasts of 
the wind of the same strength ; no 
two men look alike, act alike, think 
alike, nor live alike. 

116 



BUGLE CALLS 



OR such and kindred reasons we 
must have division in labor ; the near- 
est approach we may hope to attain 
to social equality is in the receiving 
of value for value given, " A fair day s 
wages for a fair days work." 

V-^APITAL legitimately employed 
is entitled to the protection of the 
laborer and to the protection of the 
law. Labor honestly performed is 
entitled to its full reward, that the 
conditions surrounding the laborer 
shall be consistent with the demands 
of modern civilization. Each owes 
the other a solemn duty. 

Andrew carnegie, in a 

speech to the men at Homestead, 
said : " Labor, capital, and business 
ability are the three legs of a three- 
legged stool ; neither is first, neither 
is second, neither is third. There is 



BUGLE CALLS 



no precedence, all being equally nec- 
essary. He who would sow discord 
among the three is an enemy of all." 

W. H. MALLOCK, in "Social 
Equality," points out the necessity 
of " social inequality " thus : " To 
what cause in human nature is the 
gradation of labor due ? What, 
when some men are shepherds, or 
carters, or dock laborers, is the cause 
of other men being skilled mechanics, 
or electricians, or engineers, or chem- 
ists ? Why, when on their labors 
some men expend so little thought, 
do others expend so much work? 
... The human character is so 
constituted that without the desire 
of this irregularity as a motive, the 
higher forms of skill, or even of ap- 
plication, are wholly unproducible. 
It is not that men would not choose 



118 



BUGLE CALLS 



to produce them, but they could not 
produce them. Just as a woman is 
the proper cause of a man falling in 
love, so the inequality spoken of is 
the proper cause of a mans develop- 
ing skill in labor ; and to say that 
any other cause than this could make 
him develop it would be about as 
true as to say that, in the absence of 
a woman, he would be made to fall 
in love by the tablecloth. . . . 

"Without division of labor 

not a single train could run, not a 
single newspaper could be printed. 
If articles of value could be pro- 
duced without it at all, they would 
be the rare luxuries of the rich, not 
the necessaries and comforts of the 
poor. More hands are concerned in 
producing a yard of printed cotton 
than in producing a yard of tapestry. 

119 



BUGLE CALLS 



The more popular, the more essen- 
tially democratic is the product, the 
more is division of labor invoked in 
the production. . . . Nor can any- 
one urge that this present state of 
affairs is due to our social arrange- 
ments, and not to human nature. 
For if human nature were ever really 
capable of being motived to skilled 
production by anything but the de- 
sire for inequality, no social arrange- 
ments could tend so strongly as ours 
do to bring that capacity to the sur- 
face. It is the notorious wish and 
endeavor of all modern employers to 
secure skilled labor at as cheap a rate 
as possible. I f, therefore, skilled labor 
can be really motived by benevolence, 
or by any other motive except the de- 
sire for inequality, the laborers of to- 
day have every facility afforded them 
for making the fact apparent. They 



I20 



BUGLE CALLS 



have only to do willingly the very 
thing which their employers would 
make them do, and which they, with a 
vigor that increases every day, declare 
they will never dream of doing." 

WoRKINGMEN or any class of 
toilers, authors, sculptors, scientists, 
artists, or inventors, will exert them- 
selves little, unless they have a motive 
to exert themselves much; unequal 
reward is the cause of unequal labor. 
Lower kinds of labor are produced 
by a low rate of wages, higher kinds 
of labor by a high rate. This is no ar- 
bitrary valuation, but a law of nature. 

V^APITAL cannot exist entirely 
divorced from Labor, Labor cannot 
flourish without Capital. 

1 HE truth of this is well illus- 
trated in the life of a tree, where the 



121 



BUGLE CALLS 



upper branches and twigs are de- 
pendent upon the same source for its 
controlling life current as are the 
parts nearest the base. No single 
branch can maintain its life inde- 
pendent of the rest. Each must 
work in harmony with the other. 

HIS peep into sociology, if such 
it can be termed, is taken because it 
is not my intention to picture the 
toiler as always in the right and the 
employer always in the wrong. I 
desire to be the friend of all men, not 
a mischief breeder; to harmonize 
both Capital and Labor ; to create 
and cement a lasting friendship ; to 
make every man feel his importance, 
that he is the equal of any man if 
he so elects to be. 

LABOR is honorable. Christ dig- 
nified Labor. He himself lived a hard 



122 



BUGLE CALLS 



and laborious life, and chose his im- 
mediate disciples from among the 
working people. God often called 
men to places of dignity and emi- 
nence when they were busy in the 
honest employment of an obscure 
vocation. Saul was seeking his 
fathers asses and David keeping 
his fathers sheep when called to the 
kingdom. The shepherds were feed- 
ing their flocks when they had the 
glorious revelation of the Nativity. 
" God never encourages idleness, and 
despises not persons in the meanest 
employments." " The humblest life 
may be noble, while that of the most 
powerful monarch may be contempt- 
ible." 

HE man who cheerfully plunges 
into labor and sustains his part well 
is deserving of the highest respect. 

123 



BUGLE CALLS 



All callings are alike honorable, if 
pursued with an honorable spirit ; it 
is the vicious sentiment of the heart 
that degrades, the intention carried 
into the work, not the work itself. 

" This is the gospel of Labor , ring it ye bells of 

the kirk — 
The Lord of love came down from above to live 

with men who work — - 
This is the rose that he planted, here in the 

thorn-cursed soil; 
Heaven is blessed with perfect rest, but the bless- 

ing of earth is toil." 

HE talent that will make a good 
lawyer runs to waste if diverted into 
an attempt to make a skilled physician. 
A man who is wrapped up in mechan- 
ics cannot succeed as a clerk, for 
every drop of blood and all his brain 
cells enter a perpetual protest against 
the misuse of his faculties. Millet 
throws upon a bit of canvas " The 

124 



BUGLE CALLS 



Man with the Hoe," and Markham 
writes a poem upon it. Had each at- 
tempted the others task, both would 
have remained in obscurity. As it 
was, each working in his appointed 
field — the one in art, the other in 
literature — has evolved a thought 
which has caught the conscience of 
the world and moved it to its pro- 
foundest depths. 

Abraham Lincoln in his 

early days was a workingman, and 
never quite rid himself of the idea 
that he was still a hewer of wood. 
He often expressed the belief that 
some day he would go back to his 
farm and earn his daily bread by the 
work that his hands found to do. 



i 2 5 



Awake, Educate, Agitate, 
Act, 

RECOGNIZING Labor as hon- 
orable, we must also admit 
the fact that Labor has grown tired 
of suffering, the eating of dry bread, 
and the sleeping on hard beds. Labor 
desires to rise above these condi- 
tions and go forward. Labor wants 
to be an instrument of justice, a ter- 
ror to crime, and an aid to educa- 
tion. Labor appreciates that a stream 
cannot rise higher than its source, 
and that law is circumscribed by its 
execution. 

LABOR'S ambition is not for a 
degraded spirit, an injured body ; liv- 
ing in barren and poorly furnished 

126 



BUGLE CALLS 



rooms, dressing meanly, eating coarse 
and inferior food ; being starved, 
cramped, wounded, and dejected. 
Labor knows that " Poverty " has no 
merit; that, "Hard Times" do not 
always bring forth and develop the 
best qualities ; that a plant deprived 
of air, earth, water, and sunshine 
will not and cannot flourish and be 
healthy and fruitful. 

l-#ABOR must suffer disastrous re- 
sults unless organized to protect and 
promote its interests ; a man must 
always live by his work, and his 
wages must at least be sufficient to 
maintain him ; alone, man is weak, 
and only strong enough in combi- 
nation to demand that the fruits of 
industry should be insured and pro- 
portioned as much as possible to the 
benefits which it produces ; the meth- 

127 



BUGLE CALLS 



ods of production are subjects which 
embrace the happiness and welfare 
of the wage-earner ; beneath the sur- 
face of production lie the causes of 
the heartaches and the tears of a 
destitute, helpless multitude, the vic- 
tims of monopolistic greed. 

JL#ABOR knows from experience 
that long hours of hard manual labor 
destroy the mental appetite and unfit 
one for enlightenment or education. 
If then the toilers continue to allow 
themselves to be coerced and re- 
stricted, they must denounce the in- 
alienable rights of organization and 
submit to degradation and slavery. 

HE following advice of Wendell 
Phillips is well expressed: "If you 
want power in this country, if you 
want to make yourselves felt, if you 
do not want your children to wait 

128 



BUGLE CALLS 



long years before they have the 
bread on the table they ought to 
have, the opportunities in life they 
ought to have, write on your banner 
so that every political trimmer can 
read it, 'We never forget.' If you 
launch the arrow of sarcasm at labor, 
we never forget; if there is a divi- 
sion in Congress, and you throw your 
vote on the wrong scale, we never 
forget. You may go down on your 
knees and say, ' I am sorry I did the 
act/ and we will say, ' It will avail 
you in heaven, but on this side of the 
grave, Never.'" 

O RGANIZED Labor, in its battle 
for justice, must utilize every legiti- 
mate weapon to make its influence 
felt, and consistently strive to uphold 
its friends and refuse to strengthen 
its enemies. Where a merchant 

(9) 129 



BUGLE CALLS 



shows by his actions that he is 
friendly to the cause, he is entitled 
to the laboring man's patronage. 
The workingmen and the merchants 
therefore should join together for 
the improvement of the condition 
of all, and put it beyond the power , 
of unscrupulous employers to fatten 
on the hearts blood of helpless indi- 
viduals. They should stand forth in 
all their might and demand that this 
scandal, this crime of unfair wages, 
be swept from our land. We should 
make civilization the friend of the 
poor, and not dupe the poor into 
making themselves the enemies of 
civilization. 



j 



USTICE was ordained from the 
foundation of the world and will last 
with the world and longer ; the right- 
eous and the noble will gain the vic- 



130 



BUGLE CALLS 



tory in the struggle. The principles 
which make it possible for one man 
to control a dozen horses possessed 
of a thousand times his own strength, 
is the power of knowledge over igno- 
rance. The horses are ignorant of 
their real power and yield obedi- 
ently to the command of assumed 
authority, so the mass of laborers, 
ignorant of their power, yield obe- 
dience to the assumption of a supe- 
rior intellect. 

xv WAKE, educate, agitate, act! 
The rank and file have too long 
marched to the measure of silver- 
tongued oratory, the denunciation of 
our country and its institutions. 
Why be mere automata with no wills 
of your own ? Why countenance 
party leaders who have built up the- 
ories which lack the support of sci- 

131 



BUGLE CALLS 



ence and principle, who put before 
you issues colored and trimmed to 
suit their prejudices and calculated 
only to arouse opposition ? 

i - ET all unite. Labor shall no 
longer be the scapegoat of the sins of 
the people. Unity will bring about 
a thorough expression of humanity. 
The crown of thorns on the brow of 
Labor will shine like a diadem. Em- 
ployers of Labor will not only ap- 
prove of unity, but will gladly urge 
all employers to join hands. Organ- 
ized capital will be satisfied to recog- 
nize organized Labor and treat with 
it on terms of equality and fairness. 
It is necessary, therefore, that the 
governing power of Labor be vested 
in a federation of trade, with the nec- 
essary control to compel all crafts- 
men into harmonious action, so that 



132 



BUGLE CALLS 



no antagonism may arise to divert 
the tendency to unity of purpose. 

llrACH local union has its place, 
but the national and international or- 
ganizations cover the whole field and 
represent the glorious work in which 
all are engaged. Every workman who 
is worthy of his calling is the comrade 
of every other toiler, and quarrels for 
precedence and invidious claims of 
superiority are simply so much aid 
and comfort given to the enemy. 

I T is well enough for a workingman 
to take pride in the particular union 
to which he belongs, and to do all that 
his courage may suggest to make its 
record clear and brilliant, but he has 
no right to ignore the fact that his 
little local is part of the army as a 
whole, and that every toiler, from 
whatever place he hails, and what- 



*33 



BUGLE CALLS 



ever trade he follows, has a claim on 
his sympathy and co-operation. If 
he fails to give both, and give them 
generously, he is not a citizen of the 
best type. 

V-^ITIZENS, give this movement 
approval and support. It was con- 
ceived in a spirit of justice and fair- 
ness and was born of the necessities 
of our times. Thorough organiza- 
tion will render unto Capital what is 
Capital's, and unto Labor what is 
Labors. Protection and profit to the 
former, employment and fair wages 
to the latter. 

I sometimes feel the thread of life is slender ; 

And soon with me the labor will be wrought; 
T y hen grows my heart to other hearts more tender •, 
The time is short.' 9 

POTTER PALMER, of Chicago, 
said : " For ten years I made as des- 



134 



BUGLE CALLS 



perate a fight against organized Labor 
as was ever made by mortal man. 
It cost me considerably more than a 
million dollars to learn that there is 
no labor so skilled, so intelligent, so 
faithful as that which is governed by 
organizations whose officials are well 
balanced, level-headed men. I now 
employ none but organized Labor, 
and never have the least trouble, 
each believing that the one has no 
right to oppress the other." 

Awake, Educate, Agitate, Act ! 



i3S 



Deeds, not Words. 

THE toilers make themselves 
great or little according to 
their will. Act like sheep and you 
will be eaten by wolves. Conflict 
will, in all likelihood, determine the 
course of the world's history for 
ages hereafter, therefore the battle 
must be thought out and adminis- 
tered with the same precision and 
care as a blow of a pugilist is planned 
before it is delivered. 

URVEY yourself carefully; dis- 
cover your weak and strong points ; 
dissect yourself with the keen skill 
of a surgeon. Ask of yourself, What 
are you ? Where are you going, 
and how are you to get there ? The 

136 



BUGLE CALLS 



question is not what would you do 
were you somewhere else or some 
one else, but what you shall do 
now, here, as you are, and where 
you are. 

IVlANY men are anxious to be of 
some force in the world, but lack the 
energy — the dynamo too small ; the 
wires too tenuous ; the current too 
weak. 

JtLVERY toiler is like a vaporing 
teapot, full of steam, it is true, but 
with not enough force to lift the lid. 
Yet were the toilers to concentrate 
their entire steam in one boiler, the 
force would move the biggest stumb- 
ling-block ever placed in the path- 
way of progress. Were their power 
united in one dynamo, they could 
generate the principles that would 
demand recognition. Control the 

i37 



BUGLE CALLS 



lever by concerted action, by a unifi- 
cation of the working classes. Knock 
a window into this problem large 
enough for the world to look inside 
and so give light upon the subject. 
Ambition should be your motto — 
ambition to think, to learn, to grow. 
Opportunities are all around; weak 
men wait for them, strong men 
make them. Tis not in our stars, 
but in ourselves that we are under- 
lings. 

W E are all screws in the great in- 
dustrial machine of the world ; when 
worn out each is mercilessly replaced 
by a new screw. If we are in skill 
at the top and in wages at the 
bottom, it is because we have no 
special direction of revolution. 

W E move in accordance with im- 
mutable law, not chance — the product 

138 



BUGLE CALLS 



and result of everlastingly pressing 
on for supremacy. 

" As we sow, so we reap" 

Providence owes spite to 

no one. Nature's laws are operated 
in co-operation with strong heroic 
endeavor. 

HANCE will not clothe us, feed 
us, nor house us. Accident will not 
soften the heavy hands of poverty, 
sweeten the cup of bitterness, nor 
lighten the burden of life ; it merely 
sends the breeze to sail the ship 
of Labor into the harbor of safety. 
Should the pilot slumber at the 
helm, the very winds that would 
otherwise carry the ship to port 
will dash it on the shoals e Let the 
steersman's part be vigilance — blow 
it rough or smooth. Stick together 

139 



BUGLE CALLS 



as one man till the last bar is 
crossed. To lose faith in oneself 
is more deplorable than the loss of 
capital. You can and will succeed 
though others do not believe in you, 
but never when you do not believe 
in yourself. Disbelief and irresolu- 
tion never won a victory. 



a 



JjEHOLD, ye shall grow wiser 
or ye shall die." Let each true man 
stand to his work in the ship ; turn 
the prow in the direction of actual, 
living, moving principles of freedom 
and justice. 

" Is thy cruse of comfort wasting ? 

Rise and share it with another \ 
And through all the years of famine 

It shall serve thee and thy brother. 
\s thy burden hard and heavy ? 

T>o thy steps drag heavily ? 
Help to bear thy brother s burden : 

God will bear both it and thee" 



140 



BUGLE CALLS 






C* VERY individual is but one of 
the millions who live on the earth, 
each of whom feels the innate senti- 
ment of self right. Those exercising 
their selfish ideas should be re- 
strained and compelled to harmonize 
their interest with that of others, so 
that no one person may interfere 
with any other. 

L^'ET Labor but once learn this les- 
son and strike at the business coun- 
ter of the Non-Union stores, and it 
will carry with it an influence and 
example that no opposition can with- 
stand. 

HE corner stone of the founda- 
tion upon which humanity is to rest 
must consist of perfect individual 
justice, which will not be inconsist- 
ent or at war with perfect collective 
justice. 

141 



BUGLE CALLS 



iFa man longs for light, let him go 
where the light can reach him, and 
not sit in a dark corner where only 
ghastly shadows of hell and poverty 
lurk. Let him join a Union ; attend 
all its meetings ; purchase Union- 
made productions. 

ET us have deeds, not words. Per- 
formances are better than promises, 
for exuberant assurances are cheap. 
Wake up from this apathy of de- 
spair into which you have fallen, and 
sharpen your intellect while strug- 
gling for supremacy. 

JL/ON'T wait for something to 
turn up, but pitch in and turn some- 
thing up. It is well and good to 
strike while the iron is hot, but it is 
a thousand times better to make the 
iron hot by striking it, and when you 
do strike come down with a sledge- 

142 



BUGLE CALLS 



hammer-like blow that will mean 
" The Union Label on everything." 

iF it is the end that crowns your 
undertakings, it is the beginning that 
gives it form. To reach the top you 
must first begin at the bottom. 

1 AKE a lesson from the two 
farmers living side by side, neigh- 
bor to neighbor, both lovers of good 
horse flesh ; one fond of buying every 
fine specimen, the other bent upon 
raising his own stock. 

VyNE day the farmer with his 
clumsy tribe hitched up his team to 
a big supply of the products of the 
earth, and as he gave the word " Go," 
all the horses pulled together and 
the load moved slowly but surely. 
The other farmer looked on with a 
smile of derision and soliloquized, 

143 



mm^mt^m 



BUGLE CALLS 



" Now, I'll just give him a start of 
half a mile, then I'll hitch my racers 
and beat my neighbor into market." 
True to his word, he gave the farmer 
a good start and then hitched up his 
team and let them go. For a time 
they made rapid strides, when sud- 
denly a rut was encountered. The 
horses commenced to pull counter to 
each other ; one shied this way, the 
other that. The load would not 
yield. The farmer fretted and cursed, 
and, as he puffed and swore, he be- 
held his neighbor returning. " Well, 
I'll be gol darned," said he ; " here I 
have been for years collecting the 
finest horse flesh to be had, and 
when it comes to a show down 
with that clumsy tribe, I am not 
in it. Hey, there, neighbor ! How 
did you manage to get back so 
quick ? " 

144 



BUGLE CALLS 

jlL ASILY explained," says his 
neighbor. " My horses all pull to- 
gether ; yer see, this hyar horse is 
the father of the team, the other is 
the mother, and the other two are 
the children. Now, IVe kept this 
hyar family together and trained 
them so they'll never pull against 
the tide — always with it." 

LABORING man, that is the se- 
cret of the lesson you must learn. 
Open the book page by page, read 
it chapter after chapter. No one 
can read it for you as you can your- 
self, no one can feel like you, think 
like you, or be affected just as you are 
affected. Pull together. On the battle- 
field, when the mettle of every man 
is tested, and when the cause is 
worth the sacrifice made to win, it is 
fatal to victory if the different 

(10) 145 



BUGLE CALLS 



branches of the trade refuse to stand 
shoulder to shoulder and face a 
common foe. 

HERE are times when your eyes 
will ache, your head grow dizzy, your 
energy dribble away. Arouse your- 
self, determine to do your part, and ' 
so carry out the plans and ac- 
complish the results you know are 
necessary. Honor your calling, and 
your calling will honor. you. 



146 



Nothing to Arbitrate ? 

THE Labor problem has been, 
and is at present much misun- 
derstood. Many are inclined to be- 
lieve that the strike, the boycott, 
the black list, are all that there is 
to the Labor question. But there 
is much more. It is the struggling 
of the masses for better conditions. 

1 HE underlying factors of the 
Labor question had their origin so 
long ago that history gives no ac- 
count of them. Far back in the ages 
certain tribes lived in Central Asia, 
east of the Caspian Sea. These tribes 
grew refined, intelligent, built boats, 
steered them with rudders and pro- 
pelled them with oars. Then came 



i47 



BUGLE CALLS 



the great feeling of unrest, which 
has followed the Aryan races to 
this moment, as traced through the 
Hindu, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Teu- 
tonic, and others. 

W HEN the Roman Empire was 
at its highest, all the industries of the 
countries were performed by men who 
had been taken prisoners in battle and 
converted into slaves. Their lives 
and their comforts were considered 
matters of little consequence. The 
right of conquest permitted the con- 
quered to be taken home, made slaves, 
and forced to labor that the master 
might eat, drink, and take his ease. 

W HAT is to be done when from 
the cradle to the grave it is only a 
struggle for a crust of bread ? Is it 
not human nature to rebel and seek 
improvement ? 

148 



BUGLE CALLS 



Christopher columbus 

discovered to the inhabitants of the 
old world a new country, a land 
that was to be a haven of retreat, a 
land that would give them greater 
freedom and truer equality, 

f T is self-evident that the one pos- 
sible permanent remedy for the un- 
satisfactory condition that now en- 
virons the laboring and capitalistic 
world is through a better educated 
public mind regarding the natural 
relation of Capital and Labor. 

HE toilers, as a rule, do not wel- 
come a strike, but always prefer an 
adjustment of differences. But what 
are they to do when back comes a 
reply, "There is nothing to arbitrate"? 

L F you were in the ranks of Labor 
and really believed that Capital 

149 



BUGLE CALLS 



was constantly gathering your earn- 
ings to itself, thereby rendering you 
more and more dependent upon the 
good graces of the rich for a liveli- 
hood, would you not strike ? 

HE cause of strikes is traceable 
far back to the past, when the old 
and well-known " iron law of wages " 
was in unmitigated force. The rate 
of wages in those days simply cov- 
ered the absolute physical necessities 
of a man : his clothing, food, and 
shelter. Just a sufficient amount was 
granted to sustain the physical ma- 
chine and keep it from depreciating 
in value. 

IvICARDO'S writings on wages 
may be summarized thus: "The 
natural price of labor is that price 
which is necessary to enable the la- 
borers, one with another, to subsist, 

150 



BUGLE CALLS 



and to perpetuate their race without 
either increase or diminution. . . . 
The market price of labor is the 
price which is really paid for it, from 
the natural operation of the propor- 
tion of the supply to the demand." 

VV HEN the toilers are poorly 
housed, poorly clad, poorly fed, poorly 
educated, with just sufficient to keep 
them alive and in sufficiently good 
condition to continue to toil from 
day to day ; when the grandeur of 
the civilization which the workers are 
helping to build becomes a mockery 
to them ; when they ask for a fairer 
adjustment of differences — back 
comes a reply, " Nothing to arbitrate." 
Is it not contrary to man's nature 
to rest quietly while he is being 
robbed, or while he thinks he is be- 
ing robbed ? 

15 * 



BUGLE CALLS 



1 HE retrospect of Labor con- 
ditions brings us back to child 
labor in England, when the mills 
were first established along the 
streams, and the wheels of the 
machinery were revolved by chil- 
dren from the almshouses, inden- 
tured and bound out at a fixed rate 
which compelled them to work six- 
teen hours a day, sick or well, fre- 
quently eating their dinner as they 
worked. 

"N OTHING to arbitrate?" when 
these poor, helpless creatures were 
so poorly fed that they were often 
known to steal the food that had 
been thrown to the swine ! " Noth- 
ing to arbitrate ? " When being sus- 
pected of an intention of escaping 
from their cruelty and servitude, 
chains were fastened to their ankles 



15 



BUGLE CALLS 



and suspended from their hips ! 
" Nothing to arbitrate ? " when help- 
less children of a tender age worked 
all day long, and even walked to 
and from their work with the chains 
fastened to them ? 

NOTHING to arbitrate?" when 
mothers in England, dehumanized 
and unmotherized, were made beasts 
of burden, carrying their children 
close to their breasts, while they 
themselves were hitched to coal cars 
and drew their burden through the 
underground mines! 

HON. SEABORN WRIGHT, in 
the Georgia Legislature, defending 
the Anti-Child Bill, to protect chil- 
dren from manual labor, which was 
defeated, said, in substance : " I stood 
in the door of an humble cottage, 



DO 



BUGLE CALLS 



shadowed by the factory's massive 
walls. The mistress of this home 
was the wife of a gallant Confederate 
soldier. They had seen better days. 
Death had kindly come to him, and 
he slept. The remorseless hand of 
necessity had driven the widow and 
her children out from the old home- 
stead to the humble cottage. As I 
stood, the gates of the factory swung 
open, and, amid a hundred children, 
hers came forth. They were young 
children. The kindly walls of the 
nursery should have been around 
them. There was no spring in their 
steps, no light in their eyes ; their 
cheeks were white, and I thought, 
standing in the presence of the chil- 
dren of that Confederate soldier, I 
would give every spindle and loom 
in the South to bring back the light 
to their eyes, and see the roses bloom 

?54 



BUGLE CALLS 



again upon their little cheeks. . . . 
Last night I sat with my wife by 
the fireside of our comfortable home. 
I watched my eight-year-old boy lay 
his head upon his mother s lap and 
close his tired eyes in sleep, and I 
thought, except* for the goodness 
of God, he might be numbered 
among the thousand little toilers 
in the mills of the South, through 
the long hours of the night. And 
then, with justice in my mind and 
pity in my heart, I said, ' I will 
do for the children of my people 
what I would have them do for 



mine.' ' 



Xv EAD the following two verses of 
the " Cry of the Children," by Eliza- 
beth Barrett Browning, depicting the 
horrors and tortures of the children 
driving the wheels of iron in dear 

i5S 



BUGLE CALLS 



Old England, and then say, " Noth- 
ing to arbitrate ! " 

" True" say the children, u, it may happen 

That we die before our time ; 
I^ittle Alice died last year, her grave is shapen 

'Like a snowball, in the rime. 
'We looked into the pit prepared to take her; 

Was no room for any work in the close clay ! 
From the sleep wherein she lieth none will wake 
her, 

Crying, ' Get up, little Alice ! it is day ! ' 
If you listen by that grave in sun and shower, 

With your ear down, little Alice never cries; 
Could we see her face, be sure we would not 
know her, 

For the smile has time for growing in her eyes; 
And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled in 

The shroud by the kirk-chime. 
It is good when it happens," say the children, 

u That we die before our time." 
• ••••• 

" For 0" say the children, "we are weary, 

And we cannot run or leap; 
If we cared for any meadows y it were merely 

To drop down in them and sleep. 

156 



BUGLE CALLS 



Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping, 

Vie fall upon our faces ; trying to go; 
And underneath our heavy eyelids drooping, 

The reddest flower would look as pale as 
snow, 
For all day we drag our burdens tiring 

Through the coal-dark underground ; 
Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron 

In the factories, round and round." 

ICTURE a poor widow slowly 
turning the corner of a street, and 
wiping away the tears that were fast 
chasing each other down her feeble 
cheek ; follow her to her humble 
habitation ; see her bestow a bless- 
ing upon three shivering, starving 
infants, and divide among them the 
few crumbs of bread which her day's 
labor had been able to procure. 
Bring before your mind the truth of 
this poor creature being driven in- 
sane by the thought of leaving those 
desolate children exposed to a world 



*57 



BUGLE CALLS 



she had found so cold and pitiless. 
Picture men, women, and children 
daily picking the waste food from the 
refuse cans which decorate the streets, 
prior to their contents being thrown 
into the scavengers cart — no vivid 
imagination or hallucination of the 
brain, but a true, unvarnished descrip- 
tion seen by the naked eye. 

W HAT shall we say of the foul, 
unhealthy homes, of the crowded al- 
leys in which thousands upon thou- 
sands of our poor are lodged, of the 
evils caused by want, misery, starva- 
tion, cold, and disease ; all suffering 
for the simplest demands of human 
nature, and with naught remaining 
to bury the dead ? 

Ex-MAYOR ABRAM S. HEW- 

itt, of New York City, speaking to a 
large assemblage, made comparison 

158 



BUGLE CALLS 



between rich and poor by stating: 
"Since 1840 our natural wealth has 
increased five times as fast as our 
population. Who shall say that, with 
the wonderful increase in wealth, 
there is not means in abundance to 
remove all the misery and all the 
evil conditions among the humble 
classes which at present are stains 
and sores on our body politic?" 

' GOOD God! Is this the end to 
which we have been working all 
these centuries? Is this the result 
of our industrial development ? Must 
our prosperity as a nation be pur- 
chased at such a staggering price ? 

L F these terrible tenements, these 
overcrowded districts, these dark 
and foul dwelling places, and all the 
attending miseries, must go hand in 
hand with industry, then I pray God 

iS9 



BUGLE CALLS 



that every industrial center could be 
destroyed, as was Sodom and Go- 
morrah of old." 

" 111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay. 
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade s 
A breath can make them as a breath has made; 
But a bold peasantry, their country 1 s pride, 
When once destroyed, can never be supplied" 

F OUR FIFTHS of the people of 
the world toil on year after year, and 
all the time see the other fifth revel- 
ing in the luxuries which the sweat 
of their brow has procured, and yet 
employers say, " Nothing to arbi- 
trate ! " 

T HOMAS CARLYLE, picturing 
the horrors and sufferings of the 
working class in England, said: 
"There are two millions of skillful 
workers sitting in the workhouses, 

160 



BUGLE CALLS 



Poor-Law prisons, their hope of 
deliverance as yet small. Twelve 
hundred thousand workers in Eng- 
land alone are kept up as in a kind 
of horrid enchantment, glad to be 
imprisoned that they may not 
starve. ... 

1 N thrifty Scotland, in Glasgow or 
Edinburgh city, in their dark lanes, 
hidden from all but the eyes of God, 
there are scenes of woe and destitu- 
tion and desolation, such as one may 
hope the sun never saw before in the 
most barbarous regions where men 
dwelt. . . . Not in sharp fits, but in 
a chronic gangrene of this kind is 
Scotland suffering. 

r\T Stockport Assizes, a mother 
and a father are arraigned and found 
guilty of poisoning three of the chil- 
dren to defraud a ' burial society ' of 

(n) 161 



BUGLE CALLS 



some £$ 8s. due on the death of each 
child. . . . They, with their necessity 
and savagery, had been driven to do 
it. ... A human mother and father 
had said to themselves, What shall 
we do to escape starvation ? We are 
deep sunk here in our dark cellar, 
and help is far." 

W RITING further he says : " Day 
by day all men and cattle rose to la- 
bor, and night by night returned 
home weary to their several lairs. 
In wondrous dualism, then as now, 
lived nations of breathing men ; 
alternating, in all ways, between 
Light and Dark, between Joy and 
Sorrow, between Rest and Toil, 
between Hope reaching high as 
Heaven and Fear deep as very 
Heir Yet we hear, "Nothing to 
arbitrate ! " 



162 



BUGLE CALLS 



1 HE strong brute is tearing from 
the grasp of the weaker one the food 
it is eating, and the latter, too weak 
to remonstrate, relinquishes it with a 
whine. The eagle seizes from the 
fishhawk the trout the latter has 
taken from the deep, and in the 
gloomy pool the big fish eat the 
little ones. . . . " Nothing to arbi- 
trate ! " 

1 HE miners in the anthracite re- 
gions of Pennsylvania live in huts 
and hovels ; compelled to mine from 
three to four thousand pounds of 
coal for a ton, their requests and 
petitions for a hearing to remedy the 
awful wrongs from which they suffer 
are denied. No right to have a wage 
that will decently support themselves 
and their families ? " Nothing to ar- 
bitrate!" 



163 



BUGLE CALLS 



" NOTHING to arbitrate?" when 
they ask for the abolition of the 
truck store owned by the companies, 
at which they are compelled to 
trade ; when they ask for a reduction 
in the price of powder from $2.75 to 
$1.50 a keg; when they ask for the 
observance of the law that they be 
paid in cash semimonthly ; when 
they ask for an advance of 20 per 
cent in all wages less than $1.50 a 
day, an advance of 15 per cent in 

wages between $1.50 and $1.75 a 
day, and 10 per cent advance in 
wages above $1.75 per day? 

"NOTHING to arbitrate?" when 
great corporations and railway com- 
panies pay their laborers from one 
to two dollars a day and vote their 
presidents royal salaries; when 
stock has been watered, interests dis- 



164 



BUGLE CALLS 



torted and perverted, and employees 
screwed down to the lowest possible 
notch in order to pay higher divi- 
dends ? 

"NOTHING to arbitrate?" When 
we consider that the car lines for- 
merly operated over the Brooklyn 
Bridge, owned and controlled by the 
cities of New York and Brooklyn 
from 1883 to J 898, paid conductors 
two dollars and seventy-six cents for 
eight hours' work, now that the 
operation of that road has been 
turned over to the Brooklyn Rapid 
Transit Co. the same duties are 
seemingly balanced with value for 
value given, with a salary of two dol- 
lars for ten hours' work ? 

1 OOR and rich, governed and 
governing, cannot long live together 
under such conditions. If " free 

i6k 



BUGLE CALLS 



competition " means that the more 
cunning and adroit shall profit by 
unfair bargains, enlightened laws 
must make an end to all such 
phases of free competition. It only 
requires that all crafts should con- 
solidate into a power that shall 
influence every act of government 
touching upon the laboring ques- 
tion. 

" "Ring out the grief that saps the mind> 
For those that here we see no more; 
Ring out the feud of rich and poor ; 

Ring in redress to all mankind P 

V V HEN we arrive at the advanced 
stage of civilization we shall never 
hear of strikes, and only occasion- 
ally will there be need of arbitration. 
All differences and disputes will be 
settled in a practical, common sense, 
and manly way. Good wages will 

166 



BUGLE CALLS 



be the foundation of good order and 
of all good things. 

[ N the ancient world, Marcus Au- 
relius, in whose veins flowed the 
purest blood of the Roman aristoc- 
racy, and Epictetus, belonging by 
birth to the dregs of society, stood 
for essentially the same doctrine, 
"Justice and Equity." Marcus Au- 
relius to some extent caught his in- 
spirations from the slave, and looked 
up to him as pupil to master. The 
whole teachings of Marcus Aurelius 
were that rank and station made no 
difference in human accountability ; 
that the principles upon which a man 
acts, in whatever station, alone 
count. He believed that the right 
of every man was to be respected, 
and he aimed to be the ruler of a 
state in which there should be the 



167 



BUGLE CALLS 



same law for all, administered with 
regard to equal rights ; to carry on a 
government which should respect, 
most of all, the freedom of all gov- 
erned. 

WHEN the National Founders' 
Association of Cleveland offered a 
bonus of two dollars a day to every 
Non-Union man who would go to 
work in their foundries and help 
break the power of the Molders' 
Union and defeat the men who 
went on a strike for an increase of 
ten cents per day in their wages, the 
" New York Times " condemned the 
action of that association and paid 
a glowing tribute to the cause of 
"True Unionism," saying: "When 
unions are managed by able and just- 
minded men, and respect their obli- 
gations and keep in good faith their 

168 



BUGLE CALLS 



agreement, when they cease the mis- 
chievous practice of striking and 
persisting in strikes to show their 
power, when reason moves and jus- 
tice guides them, then they will cease 
to be part evil and part good and 
become, like any other established 
and beneficial social institution, a 
recognized good. For the full ac- 
complishment of these ameliorations, 
we shall have to wait the slow 
growth of wisdom under the teach- 
ing of experience. The advance can 
be helped on by candor and fairness 
on the part of the employer." 



j 



UST as soon as we have a people 
the majority of whom reason logic- 
ally, think clearly, see their rights 
and intelligently strive to secure 
them, just so soon will we see the 
last of the colossal crimes committed 



169 



BUGLE CALLS 



in the name of civilization. Meet 
upon the plane of common justice, 
and do unto others as vou would 
they should do unto you. 

" Every sower must one day reap 
Fruit from the seed he has sown. 

How carefully^ then, it becomes us to keep 
A watchful eye on the seed, and seek 

To sow what is good, that we may not weep 
To receive our own 7 " 



"A 



WAKE, Educate, Agitate, and 
Act ! " 



I70 



APPENDIX. 



Appendix. 



Factory Inspector's Fourteenth 
Annual Report. 

New York, 1899, page 37. 

NO subject has in recent years received a 
larger share of attention from students of in- 
dustrial conditions, philanthropists, labor 
leaders, and legislators than that of M Tene- 
ment House Workshops," or, as they are com- 
monly called, "Sweatshops." Our present 
" tenement-made articles " law is fashioned 
somewhat after the law of Massachusetts, the 
operation of which has given eminent satisfac- 
tion. Our amended tenement law went into 
effect September 1, 1899. Its operation thus 
far has clearly developed the fact that u sweat- 
ing," or home manufacture, exists in Greater 
New York to an alarming extent. 



i73 



APPENDIX 



Factory Inspector's Fourteenth 
Annual Report. 

New York, 1899, page 50. 
RIGHT in the very heart of the most en- 
lightened, and one of the proudest cities of 
the earth — where civilization, and its attendant 
benefits, seems to be at its best — we have 
found some of the darkest spots of which the 
human mind can possibly conceive. From 
these hovels of human habitation, where men, 
women, and children of all ages herd to- 
gether like so many cattle, some of our proud- 
est and most respected citizens are drawing 
large dividends in the form of extortionate 
rentals. 

Factory Inspector's Fourteenth 
Annual Report. 

New York, 1899, page 55. 
THE following detailed list of orders issued 
by the department, all of which have been 
fully complied with, will give but a slight 
idea of the amount of labor performed by the 
bureau in its work of looking after the con- 
dition of bakeshops during the past year : 



i74 



APPENDIX 



REDUCED hours to sixty per week, 375 ; 
cease employing minor, 104 ; file certificates, 
37 ; provide pipe and hood, or ventilate bake- 
rooms, etc., 847 ; sanitary plumbing and drain- 
age, 144; increase height of bakeroom to at 
least eight feet, 290; clean premises, remove 
coal, ashes, etc., 645 ; repair, and limewash 
or paint walls, ceilings, etc., 2,707 ; repair, 
scrape, oil floors, etc., or provide new floors, 
1,053 ; remove beds, bedding, etc., and cease 
sleeping in bakerooms, etc., 222 ; keep dogs, 
chickens, etc., out of bakerooms, 118; pro- 
vide wash sink, running water, flashing, re- 
move casings, etc., 458 ; provide water-closets, 
remove water-closets from bake and store- 
rooms, provide separate water-closets, etc., 

i73. 



Report of the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics. 

Connecticut, 1898, page 143. 

HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, when 
he was a member of the New York State As- 
sembly, spoke as follows on the bill to prohibit 

*75 



APPENDIX 



the making of cigars in tenement houses : "I 
have visited these pestholes personally, and I 
can assure you if smokers could only see how 
these cigars are made, we would not need 
any legislation against this system at all." 



Union Label. 

THERE are now 31 labels and three cards 
recognized by organized Labor. The unions 
using labels indorsed by the American Feder- 
ation of Labor are : 

Cigar Makers, Printers, Boot and Shoe 
Workers, Hatters, Wood Workers, Garment 
Workers, Tobacco Workers, Tailors, Molders, 
Horse Nail Makers, Salmon Fishermen, 
Bakers, Coopers, Tanners and Curriers, Team- 
sters, Leather Workers, Brewery Workers, 
Mattress Makers, Broom Makers, Carriage 
and Wagon Makers, Brick Makers, Bicycle 
Workers, Bottle Blowers, Brush Makers, Metal 
Polishers, Machinists, Horse Shoers, Piano 
Makers, Can Makers, Engravers, Ladies' Gar- 
ment Workers, Musicians. The Clerks, Bar* 
bers, and Waiters have a card. 



176 



APPENDIX 



Buttons for Union Bartenders. 

" New York Sun," March 19, 1901. 

THE Bartenders' Union has decided to 
adopt a button to be worn by its members 
when they are serving drinks. The buttons 
will be ready in a few days, and will be fur- 
nished to every union bartender. When this 
has been done notification of the fact is to be 
sent to the unions in other trades with the 
request that they will not purchase drinks 
from bartenders who do not wear a union 
button. 



President Gompers' Report. 

Twentieth Annual Convention American Feder- 
atioti of Labor, 

Louisville, Ky., December 6, 1900. 

On Strikes. 

THE strike of the anthracite miners of 
Pennsylvania involved over 150,000 persons. 
When this strike occurred but very few of 
the men were organized. The substantial 

(12) 177 



APPENDIX 



victories and improvements obtained by the 
miners some years ago, together with a gen- 
eral improvement among the workers result- 
ing from organized effort, had imbued the 
men in the anthracite regions with the fact 
that the burdens they were bearing and the 
injustices which were heaped upon them were 
no longer to be endured. 

THE splendid contest and excellent results 
achieved are known to us all, and need not 
be recounted here. Sufficeth for us to say 
that the strike of the miners in Pennsylvania 
has done more to assist in wiping out misery 
and degradation than all other occurrences 
combined, and the record we have in regard to 
the bituminous miners' strike of 1897 may be 
set down here without hesitation ; that the 
worst that the miners have had to undergo is 
passed, and in the future they will take their 
position shoulder to shoulder with their fel- 
low-craftsmen, without the necessity of con- 
flict, continually improving the conditions 
of themselves and those dependent upon 
them, and performing their share of the 
duties in the great and humane struggle of 
labor. 



178 



APPENDIX 



On Compulsory Arbitration. 

IT is strange how much men desire to compel 
other men to do by law. What we aim to 
achieve is freedom through organization. Ar- 
bitration is only possible when voluntary. It 
never can be successfully carried out unless 
the parties to a dispute or controversy are 
equals, or nearly equals, in power to protect 
and defend themselves, or to inflict injury 
upon the other. 

THE more thoroughly the workers are organ- 
ized in their local and national unions, and 
federated by common bond, policy, and polity, 
the better shall we be able to avert strikes and 
lockouts, secure conciliation, and, if necessary, 
arbitration; but it must be voluntary arbitra- 
tion, or there should be no arbitration at all. 

IT is our aim to avoid strikes; but I trust that 
the day will never come when the workers of 
our country will have so far lost their man- 
hood and independence as to refuse to strike, 
regardless of the provocation, or to surrender 
their right to strike. We seek to prevent 
strikes ; but we realize that the best means by 
which they can be averted is to be the better 



179 



APPENDIX 



prepared for them. We endeavor to prevent 
strikes ; but there are some conditions far 
worse than strikes, and among them is a de- 
moralized, degraded, and debased manhood. 
Lest our attitude be misconstrued by silence, 
this convention should emphatically and with- 
out any ambiguity declare its position. 



Workmen, Beware of "Compul- 
sory Arbitration." 

The " New York Evening Journal," March 29, 1901, 
endorsed President Gompers* message, in the following 
well-expressed and pointed editorial : 

" THERE is no doubt that the proper way 
of settling Labor troubles is through arbitra- 
tion. There is no doubt that if very rich 
men were scrupulous or legislators honest, 
COMPULSORY arbitration, binding upon 
workmen and employers, would be desirable. 

" But when you speak now of a BIG em- 
ployer you mean, usually, a trust or some indi- 
vidual controlled by a trust. 

" Trusts are corporations, without hearts or 
souls. 

" Their rulers are men of violent prejudices, 
especially antipathetic toward Labor Unions. 

180 



APPENDIX 



" Everybody knows that of legislative ma- 
chines or of legislating men the majority are 
subject to corruption by direct bribery or in- 
direct influence. 

" We support Mr. Samuel Gompers, head of 
the American Federation of Labor, in his op- 
position to compulsory arbitration. 

" With compulsory arbitration on the statute 
books, we should very soon see the trusts 
bribing legislators or officials to appoint sub- 
servient arbitrators. 

" Workmen, refusing to submit to bribed ar- 
bitrators, would be outside the pale of the 
law, and another disadvantage would be 
added to the conditions which confront them. 

" It is difficult enough to win a strike now, 
however just the grievances, but at present 
strikes are at least lawful and recognized. 

" They would be unlawful if persisted in 
after the compulsory arbitration law, and the 
right of men to strike would have to be fought 
out all over again. 

" It is discouraging, but it must be said, that 
while money rules absolutely, as at present, 
men who want their rights must not put 
themselves at the mercy of any set of arbitra- 
tors whom money might subsequently buy." 



ISI 



APPENDIX 



Secretary's Report. 

Twentieth Annual Convention American Feder- 
ation of Labor, 

THE effort to secure definite information as 
to gains and losses unions sustained by strikes 
during the past twelve months has been un- 
usually successful. While the information 
does not cover all the strikes and lockouts, 
yet the results achieved by those reported 
show unusual results. 

A CAREFUL compiling of the reports show 
that 688 strikes were officially noticed, involv- 
ing 213,190 members. Of this number 455 
were won, 74 compromised, 106 lost, and 53 
pending. Number of persons benefited were 
217,493, and 11,257 did not receive a sub- 
stantial benefit. 

Secretary's Report. 



name. 



A. F. of L 

Allied Metal Mechanics. 

Bakers 

Barbers. 

Blacksmiths 

Boiler Makers 



No. of 
strikes 
won. 



40 



3 

49 



No. of 
strikes 
compro- 
mised. 



14 



Strikes 
pending 



15 



No. of 

strikes 

lost. 



l82 



APPENDIX 



NAME. 


No. of 

strikes 

won. 


No. of 
strikes 
compro- 
mised. 


Strikes 
pending 


No. of • 

strikes 

lost. 


Bookbinders 


3 
3 






2 


Boot and Shoe Workers . 
Brewery Workers 


I 




1 


Brick Makers 


3 

6 




2 


I 


Broom Makers 




Carpenters, Brotherhood. 








Carpenters, Amal. Soc. . . 
Carriage Makers 


IO 

4 

IO 

92 

2 

15 


I 




I 
2 


Carvers, Wood 


3 

IO 




2 


Cigar Makers 


20 


Clerks 




Coopers 


3 


3 


7 


Core Makers 


Curtain Oper. , Lace 






I 




Drivers, Team 


12 


2 


3 


Electrical Workers 


Engineers, Coal Hoisting 

Engineers, Steam 

Engineers, Amal. Soc . . . 


I 

5 










5 




Engravers, Watch Case. . 
Firemen 


3 
3 


I 
I 


i 

2 


i 


Fitters and Helpers, Steam 
Garment Workers, United 


2 


GarmentWorkers, Ladies' 


2 




4 


Glass Bottle Blowers .... 






Glass Workers, National . 










Granite Cutters 


I 
I 

4 
14 








Hatters, United 


I 

4 






Horse Shoers 






H. R. E. I. A. & B. L.. 






Tewelry Workers 






i 


Laborers, Building 










Lathers 










Leather Workers 


IO 






i 


Longshoremen | 


9 1 


2 




i 



183 



APPENDIX 



NAME. 


No. of 
strikes 
won. 


No. of 
strikes 
compro- 
mised. 


Strikes 
pending 


No. of 

strikes 

lost. 


Machinists 


24 


9 


2 


5 


Meat Cutters 


Metal Polishers 

Metal Workers, Sheet. . . 


14 


2 


I 


Metal Workers, United. . 










Mine Workers, United . . 










Molders, Iron 


8 


I 


8 


15 


Musicians 


Oil Workers 










Painters 


14 


2 




2 


Paper Makers 




Pattern Makers 


4 


I 


3 


2 


Plumbers 




Plate Printers 


1 

1 

6 








Pressmen, Printing 

Potters, Operative 

Railway Employees.Street 
Railway Trackmen 


5 












1 


3 


Spinners, Mule 


2 

3 

4 

21 








Stage Employees 

Stove Mounters 

Tailors 


1 
2 


4 


I 
3 


Textile Workers 


Tile Layers 










Tin Plate Workers 










Tobacco Workers 






1 
1 




Trunk and Bag Workers. 




1 




Typographical Union . . . 
Upholsterers 


7 
8 
2 


11 


4 




2 


^^eavers Elastic ^Veb . . . 




Weavers, Wire 




1 

3 




Wood Workers 


16 




2 






Total 


455 


74 


53 


106 



184 







ARRANGED AND PRINTED AT 

THE CHELTENHAM PRESS 

NEW YORK 



The Successful Man 
of Business 

SECOND EDITION. BRENT ANO'S, NEW YORK, igOO 

By BENJAMIN WOOD 



i2mo. Cloth. 208 Pages. Price, $1.00 



A book outlining" the broad principles upon which all 

permanent business success is grounded. No 

branch of the subject is neglected 



EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS 

By Prominent Representative Publications. 

The endeavor to combine poetic fancies with 
the practical lessons of commercial life is rather 
uncommon, and we follow Mr. Benjamin Wood 
in his volume, " The Successful Man of Busi- 
ness," as we might a pioneer into new regions 
of literature. — New York Sun, March 18, 1899. 

The thousands who desire commercial suc- 
cess ought to make an eager public for " The 
Successful Man of Business." — The Church- 
man, New York, Feb. 3, 1900. 

I have read " The Successful Man of Busi- 
ness " with the greatest interest, and shall place 
it where it will be accessible to the young men 
of the University. — David Starr Jordan, 
President Stanford University, Palo Alto, Cal. 



We sincerely wish that every young man in 
the English-speaking world would obtain,study, 
and heed the counsels given by Mr. Wood in 
his volume, " The Successful Man of Business.' ' 
— Leslie's Weekly, New York, Jan. 13, 1900. 

Mr. Wood writes in a graceful, even poetic, 
way and not infrequently condenses his advice 
into a terse and epigrammatic phrase that sticks 
tenaciously in the memory. — Picayune, New 
Orleans, June 3, 1900. 

The hard cold facts that are presented by Mr. 
Wood are robbed of sterility by the author's 
easy conversational style. It is a book that can 
be read again and again with pleasure as well 
as profit. — Republican, Denver, June 3, 1900. 

The author handles his question with a care 
and ease of manner born of long and intimate 
knowledge of stable business methods. — Demo- 
crat, Chicago, June 9, 1900. 

The book is almost certain to retain the at- 
tention of any reader, although this is not what 
would be expected from a book with this title. 
— Times, Hartford, Sept. 20, 1900. 

A book of high and inspiring idealism ap- 
plied to the hardest kind of reality with the 
most unflinching realism. — Evangelist, New 
York, Oct. 18, 1900. 

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propriate in sentiment -and inspiring to fine 
thoughts. — Journal of Education, Boston, Feb. 
15, 1900. 

" The Successful Man of Business " is a good 
book to place in the hands of boys and young 
men who are just entering upon a life career. 
— Review, Boston, Jan. 20, 1900 



1 



The author seeks to point the way for ener- 
getic men who have a high conception of the 
duties of a business man. — San Francisco Chron- 
icle^ March 31, 1899. 

The author has gone into the inner lives of 
men who have made a success and sought out 
those qualities that have led to supremacy. — 
San Francisco Call, April 9, 1899. 

It is a book from which every young man 
can gain much. — San Francisco News Letter ', 
Nov. 10, 1900. 

The book is so fascinating that the reader 
who takes it up will read every chapter. — Pal- 
ladium, New Haven, June 13, 1900. 

The author lays down certain fundamental 
principles which will be recognized by every 
person of discernment as constituting the cor- 
ner stone of advancement. — Herald, Baltimore, 
May 27, 1900. 

The author, filled with his subject, carries 
great enthusiasm into his task, and it might be 
hoped that every young man will secure a copy 
of the book and give it serious study. — North 
American, Philadelphia, June 1, 1900. 

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it would turn the lazy ones' thoughts to other 
channels and make of the earnest ones model men 
of business. — Journal, Albany, June 2, 1900. 

There is nothing about this book to call forth 
aught but praise, for it is a cleverly gotten up 
work. — Item, New Orleans, June 3, 1900. 

It is in the main intensely practical and filled 
with common sense advice. — Record, Chicago, 
June 2, 1900. 



Apr - 29 : - 



